When you are thinking about sending money abroad, an international money transfer provider is a great option. They can help you with the whole process, provide useful online tools and most importantly bank-beating exchange rates and low or zero fees.
| Foreign Transfer Providers Ratings & Reviews | Receive JPY(¥) | Exchange Rate | Fee HKD | Total Cost | Transfer Services | Transfer Speed | Deal Links |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Great rates and platform for personal, business and online sellers. Get local currency accounts in GBP, EUR, CAD, USD, AUD, NZD, JPY and CNY. More info▾ | 710,000 JPY | 14.2 | 0 | 0.68% | Bank Transfers - Online & Phone, Foreign Currency Accounts | 1-2 days | |
 OFX exchange rates are highly competitive for global money transfers, great customer service. ^Zero transfer fees for BestExchangeRates customers. More info▾ | 700,000 JPY | 14 | 0 for BER users (normally $60) | 2.08% | Bank Transfers - Online & Phone, Foreign Currency Accounts | 1-2 days | |
Banks - Average Rate    Average rate from selected banks. Click icons for each bank's costs. More info▾ | 685,350 JPY | 13.72 | 55 | 4.13% | Online, Branch, Bank Transfers | 2-3 days |
This is a chart showing the change in the HKD-JPY mid-market exchange rate over the last week. The Total Cost of each foreign transfer in the above table is calculated as the sum of all fees and the exchange rate margin, which is the difference between the provider's exchange rate and the mid-market HKD-JPY exchange rate.
Whenever you are interested in an exchange rate you are actually interested in two currencies due to the fact that the value of a currency must always be quoted in comparison to a second currency.
So it follows that if you are determining the best time to transact, in this case the HKD vs JPY, you should pay attention to both Hong Kong Dollar and Japanese Yen news and forecasts.
On balance, the Hong Kong dollar strengthened steadily in the February-April period. By recent standards, it was particularly strong against the euro at rates near HK$8.825. It was near the weaker boundary of its US dollar trading range, at HK$7.844. Against a basket of currencies, the US dollar was up 1.5 percent on the year by April-22, implying the same year-to-date gain for HKD.
HKD’s strength comes in spite of this year’s dovish turn by the US Federal Reserve, whose actions Hong Kong’s central bank must follow. The Fed has ditched two interest rate hikes from its 2019 projections, but fortunately for holders of HKD, the rest of the world has problems too and other important central banks have also turned dovish, removing much of the incentive for selling HKD.
Based on USD research, a Bloomberg analyst warned in April of potential for a large upcoming move in HKD, up or down. Over the past quarter-century, three deep troughs in a prominent volatility index were followed by USD moves over 6-month periods worth 10-15 percent. The index in question fell in the second half of April to a 5-year low.
Early in 2019, in the midst of a “flash crash” in JPY cross rates, the yen briefly struck a 9-month high against the US dollar (a 10-year high against the Australian dollar) but has since steadily lost value, and in the third week of April it was among the worst performing internationally-important currencies. Year-to-date, the yen was down by 2 percent against USD (¥112), by 3.4 percent against AUD (¥80), by 4 percent against GBP (¥145.5), and was even down by a marginal 0.2 percent against a weak euro (¥125.9).
Citibank continues to forecast a much stronger yen in 6-12 months’ time; it foresees USD/JPY falling to ¥105 and AUD/JPY in the high ¥77s.
For the end of 2019, Scotiabank is predicting a stronger yen versus the US dollar, at ¥108, but slight yen weakness versus the Australian dollar, which will buy ¥81.
