Best CFD brokers in Japan in 2020

To find the best CFD broker in Japan for 2020, we went ahead and did the research for you. After testing, analyzing and comparing 77 quality online brokers, we arrived at our top 3 in Japan. We show you our list, you pick your winner. And now, without further ado...

The top 3 picks for the best CFD brokers of 2020 for citizens in Japan:

1. IG is the best CFD broker in Japan in 2020. First-class web trading platform. Superb educational tools. Great deposit and withdrawal options.
2. AvaTrade is number two. Easy and fast account opening. Free deposit and withdrawal options. Great research tools.
3. MultiBank is third. Fast and easy account opening. Free and multiple deposit and withdrawal options. Fast and relevant customer service.

What makes a good CFD broker? First of all, they need to offer fair fees and have a good safety score. It must also be easy to open an account and deposit money. They should provide access to many products and have a great platform.

That's easy to list, but harder to figure out. We test brokers along close to 300 criteria with real accounts and real money. We know what's up. You can find the details of all the ranking criteria in our methodology.

Disclaimer: CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. Between 74-89% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs. You should consider whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money. If you don't have a clue what a CFD is, you should start by reading more about CFD trading.

Not sure which broker to choose? For a tailored recommendation, check out our broker finder tool. Just enter your country and you will see only the relevant brokers. Want more details? Compare brokers with this in-depth comparison table.

And now, let's see the best CFD brokers for Japanese citizens in 2020 one by one. Starting with the winner, IG.

IG was established in the UK in 1974 and is one of the biggest CFD brokers in the world. It is regulated by several bodies globally, including top-tier regulators like the UK's Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and Germany's Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin). IG Group is listed on the London Stock Exchange.

IG is considered safe because it is listed on a stock exchange, discloses its financials and is overseen by top-tier regulators.

Disclaimer: CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. 74-89% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs. You should consider whether you understand how CFDs work and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money. CFDs are not provided for US clients. Forex trading involves risk. Losses can exceed deposits.

Recommended for traders of any experience level looking for an easy-to-use trading platform

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74-89% of retail CFD accounts lose money

#1 IG
Fees

2.7

IG has low non-trading fees. There is no fee for withdrawals and an inactivity fee is charged only after 2 years. On the negative side, the forex and stock CFD fees are high.

All spreads, commissions and financing rate for opening a position, holding for a week, and closing.

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74-89% of retail CFD accounts lose money

#1 IG
Account opening

4.4

IG's account opening is seamless and fully digital. There is no minimum deposit for bank transfers and a low, $/€300 minimum deposit for credit/debit cards and PayPal. On the other hand, account verification takes around 3 business days, which is slower than at some other brokers.

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74-89% of retail CFD accounts lose money

#1 IG
Deposit and withdrawal

4.5

IG offers free and fast deposits and withdrawals. There are various options for funding your account, including traditional methods such as bank wire transfer and credit card funding, as well as PayPal.

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74-89% of retail CFD accounts lose money

#1 IG
Markets and products

4.0

At IG, most clients can only trade with CFDs, forex and options. There are literally thousands of CFDs available to trade. Residents in the UK and some other countries can also trade with real stocks. Other popular assets, however, like mutual funds and bonds, are not available.

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74-89% of retail CFD accounts lose money

#1 IG
Web trading platform

5.0

IG's web trading platform is great for both beginners and professional traders. It is easy to use, has all the necessary functions and can be customized.

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74-89% of retail CFD accounts lose money

#1 IG
Verdict

IG is one of the biggest and most reliable CFD brokers. It is regulated by several financial authorities around the world. IG Group is listed on the London Stock Exchange.

IG has one of the best web trading platforms BrokerChooser has tested. The deposit and withdrawal conditions are great. You can also expand your knowledge with great educational materials.

On the other hand, there are some drawbacks. The forex and stock CFD fees are high and the product portfolio in most countries is limited to forex, CFDs and options. Customer support could be better.

Feel free to test IG's first-class trading platform, since there is no minimum funding amount for bank transfers and you can also easily open a demo account. 

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74-89% of retail CFD accounts lose money

AvaTrade is a global CFD and forex broker founded in 2006. It is regulated by several financial authorities, such as the Central Bank of Ireland.

Disclaimer: CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. 79% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider. You should consider whether you understand how CFDs work and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.

Recommended for forex and cfd traders looking for an option to use metatrader platforms

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79% of retail CFD accounts lose money

#2 AvaTrade
Fees

3.3

Stock index CFD fees are low, but otherwise AvaTrade has rather average trading fees. Withdrawals are free of charge, but inactivity fees are quite high.

All spreads, commissions and financing rate for opening a position, holding for a week, and closing.

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79% of retail CFD accounts lose money

#2 AvaTrade
Account opening

5.0

Account opening at AvaTrade is seamless and fully digital. You can start trading literally in minutes.

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79% of retail CFD accounts lose money

#2 AvaTrade
Deposit and withdrawal

4.5

AvaTrade offers several free options for deposit and withdrawal. On the negative side, withdrawal took us 3 business days, and debit card deposits can also be slow.

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79% of retail CFD accounts lose money

#2 AvaTrade
Markets and products

2.0

AvaTrade offers only forex and CFDs, such as stock, index, forex and commodity CFDs. It doesn't offer other popular asset classes such as real stocks, bonds or mutual funds.

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79% of retail CFD accounts lose money

#2 AvaTrade
Web trading platform

3.6

AvaTrade's web platform is user-friendly, well-designed, and has a unique order type to protect you from losses. However, it lacks customizability, two-step login and price alerts.

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79% of retail CFD accounts lose money

#2 AvaTrade
Verdict

AvaTrade is regulated by several authorities globally, including the top-tier Central Bank of Ireland and the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), therefore it is considered safe.

We liked the seamless and hassle-free account opening. You can use a lot of deposit and withdrawal options, all free of charge. We also liked that you can use many user-friendly tools for research.

AvaTrade has some drawbacks though. The product range is limited to forex, CFDs, and cryptos, and there is a high fee charged for inactivity. Lastly, there are better alternatives if forex trading fees are your main concern.

As there is only a small minimum deposit, and your account will be ready for trading quickly, feel free to try AvaTrade.

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79% of retail CFD accounts lose money

MultiBank is a global CFD and FX broker.

MultiBank Group is a global financial group which includes companies from asset management to brokerage. MultiBank's brokerage service is operating under several legal entities regulated by Australian ASIC and other financial regulators. In this review, we use MultiBank as a name for the brokerage service.

MultiBank is considered safe because it is regulated by the top-tier ASIC and has a long history, dating back to 2005.

Disclaimer: CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. 74-89% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider. You should consider whether you understand how CFDs work and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.

Recommended for forex and cfd traders familiar with the metatrader trading platform

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74-89% of retail CFD accounts lose money

#3 MultiBank
Fees

2.9

MultiBank does not charge any withdrawal fees and has low stock index CFD fees. On the other hand, the stock CFD and inactivity fees are high.

All spreads, commissions and financing rate for opening a position, holding for a week, and closing.

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74-89% of retail CFD accounts lose money

#3 MultiBank
Account opening

5.0

The account opening procedure with Multibank is easy and straightforward. The account is ready for trading within a day.

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74-89% of retail CFD accounts lose money

#3 MultiBank
Deposit and withdrawal

4.5

Deposit and withdrawal at MultiBank are great. You can use many deposit and withdrawal types and withdrawal is free.

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74-89% of retail CFD accounts lose money

#3 MultiBank
Markets and products

1.4

At Multibank you can trade only with forex and CFDs. CFDs are provided in several forms, such as stock indexes and cryptos.

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74-89% of retail CFD accounts lose money

#3 MultiBank
Web trading platform

2.8

At Multibank you can use the MetaTrader4 trading platform. It is highly customizable, available in a lot of languages, and has a clear fee report. On the negative side, it lacks a two-step login and the design is outdated.

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74-89% of retail CFD accounts lose money

#3 MultiBank
Verdict

MultiBank is regulated by more financial authorities globally, including the top-tier ASIC.

The account opening is seamless and hassle-free. Multiple and free options are offered for deposit and withdrawal. The customer service is great.

MultiBank has some drawbacks though. The stock CFD and inactivity fees are high. Its product range is limited to FX, CFDs, and cryptos. The research and educational tools are also basic. 

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74-89% of retail CFD accounts lose money

Trading with CFDs became widely popular over the past decade. Keeping your eyes on important criteria like fees or the number of CFDs offered can help find the best CFD broker for you.

When we selected the best CFD broker in 2020, we ranked brokers focusing on CFDs along close to 300 criteria. Not to overwhelm you with all of them, below we list just the five most important criteria.

Fees, fees and fees. We bet this is at the top of your mind when you’re looking for the best CFD broker. Let's see how we compared the fees of the various CFD brokers.

It is tough to compare CFD broker fees, but we are here to help. You need to look at two fee categories: trading-related fees and non-trading fees.

Trading-related fees

With regards to trading-related fees, brokers can charge commissions, spreads and overnight fees. To make your life easier we calculated all fees based on real-life scenarios so you can make a simple comparison. We took the following products:

• US equity index - S&P 500 index CFD
• European equity index - Europe 50 index CFD
• Forex - EURUSD and GBPUSD

We assumed opening a position, holding it for a week, and closing it. We calculated with S&P 500 and EU 50 positions of $2,000, while we took the forex positions in the value of $20,000. These real-life assumptions make CFD fees comparable.

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CFDs are derivatives, with a wide range of products easily available to trade. However, it is a leveraged product, which means that it is quite risky.

CFDs are derivatives: you bet on price movements

With CFDs, you can gamble on whether the price of an asset will go up or down, without buying the stock. Let's say you want to profit from Microsoft's stock price going up. At an online stockbroker, you would buy the Microsoft stock. In comparison, at a CFD broker you can instead bet directly on the stock price going up. However, CFDs are much like knives: they can be very useful, but if you have no idea how to use one, you can easily hurt yourself.

CFDs are an easy way to reach a lot of markets with leverage

Why on earth is this good for you? Well, there are three advantages:

• 1. You can make bets on all kinds of products. For example, if you want to trade with Turkish stocks, you can do so via CFDs, which might not be possible with an online stockbroker. It is easier for a broker to provide a CFD than to have access to the Turkish stock exchange.
• 2. The second advantage is leverage. The potential returns on your bet will be much bigger than with buying the actual stock. But this naturally also carries greater risk, therefore we recommend that you fully understand leverage before you invest.
• 3. Lastly, CFDs are an easy way to have short positions. This is indeed a big plus.

To better understand these advantages better, educate yourself by reading our CFD trading tips.

Not owning the underlying asset exposes you to additional risks

If you do not own the stock (or any other underlying asset), you are running a whole different kind of risk, which you need to understand before trading CFDs.

Let's say Bob owns Siemens stock, while Janet has an open long Siemens CFD position, both of them with the broker “Bust Brokers.” The worst happens, and Bust Brokers goes bust. Bob's Siemens stock is in custody with his custody service provider, meaning sooner or later he will be able to access it again. However, Janet did not own any stock but was in a long CFD position, therefore she will be compensated only up to the investor protection scheme of the broker’s country. In most cases, this is a maximum of €20,000.

The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has published a 2018 regulation relating to CFDs and binary options. These new measures clearly show how the European regulators wish to secure retail investors from the gloomy side of the European retail brokerage industry.

Based on ESMA's research, around 74-89% of investors were losing money on their CFD investments, and in many cases not purely out of their own fault. One core problem is that the dealing desk brokers were making a profit when their clients lose money. If you don't know what this model looks like, this Financemagnates article explains it very well. Another problem was the aggressive and unbridled marketing of deposit bonuses, cheap prices and messages that promised easy ways of getting rich.

The ESMA regulation is aimed at helping to reduce the proportion of accounts suffering losses. Here are the measures proposed by the regulation and their explanations:

• Limiting leverage: it was not uncommon to be able to open a position with 400:1 leverage, the possible maximum leverage will be limited to 30:1 for major currency pairs. The limitation varies according to the underlying asset's volatility:
  • 30:1 for major currency pairs
  • 20:1 for non-major currency pairs, gold and major stock indices
  • 10:1 for commodities other than gold and non-major stock indices;
  • 5:1 for single stocks and any underlying not otherwise mentioned
  • 2:1 for cryptocurrencies
• Margin close out on a per account basis: if an account's total margin falls below 50% of the initially required margin, brokers must close out or more of your positions.
• Negative balance protection: you cannot lose more money than you invested in.
• Restriction on marketing and incentive tools: instead of promoting CFD trading by promising of getting rich in a short period, brokers have to clearly show what percentage of their customers are losing money.

Summing up, do the stricter regulations mean that trading CFDs will become a nothing but a bedtime story we tell our kids? On the one hand, retail investors will be protected from losing more than they invest. On the other hand, canny investors won't be able to multiply their profits by using high leverage. Altogether, we think CFDs will remain popular despite the new regulations as trading will become safer and more transparent.

Being part of a banking group or listed on an exchange should be your primary compass for finding the best CFD brokerss

It's time to discuss how to make a well-informed choice in today's changing landscape of CFD brokers. We prefer exchange-listed and/or banking licensed brokers. Why?

• Being listed on any developed exchange means additional regulations, strict and frequent audits and also the need for constant communication between shareholders and other stakeholders. No wonder that only a small portion of retail brokers decide to give up money in exchange transparency.
• Banks are indisputably crucial building blocks of any economy. Strict capital requirements, regulations and transparency are a must. Therefore any broker backed by a bank can be considered more reliable than the ones that aren't.

For more help on these points, check out ourcomparison table for online brokers.

Compare protection amounts

You've seen the details, now let's zoom out. Here are the best CFD brokers in 2020 for citizens in Japan

IG is our winner, the best CFD broker for Japanese citizens in 2020. First-class web trading platform. Superb educational tools. Great deposit and withdrawal options.

All five top brokers are great choices. However, do not forget, that CFDs are really risky. If you are experienced, pick your winner, and take the next step in your trading journey. Let us know what you think in the comments section.

Still unsure? Use the broker finder and find the best broker for you.