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Explanation of the sub's rules

This page is a living document and we will update it with additional examples and explanations as they arise. If you have any questions or suggestions, please contact us by modmail or make a comment in the next monthly moderation thread.

Rule 1: Be nice​

Reddit's content policy and its well-known exhortation to "remember the human" provides a good starting point for understanding this rule. In particular, though, we want to discourage all types of ad hominem, as well as attacks directed towards a user's credibility. The following comments would be considered prohibited, for example:

  • "No one would be so stupid as to think X."
  • "You are obviously an idiot who can't be reasoned with."
  • "Your post history suggests that you are lying."

At the same time, we do not want to prohibit everything that could possibly be construed as critical or disparaging, especially when such content is accompanied by useful information. For example:

✓ "Here [link] I googled the answer for you. Try googling first next time."

🗴 "Are you too stupid to google these kinds of questions?"

✓ "It was naïve to rely on your employer to give you accurate advice about your pension obligations."

🗴 "You would have to be an idiot to believe everything your employer tells you."

Rule 2: Don't undermine the subreddit's purpose​

As described in the sidebar, this sub exists to provide English-speaking residents of Japan with a place to discuss finance and technology in a collaborative and constructive way. Rule 2 requires that contributions to the sub be consistent with this purpose.

There are a few different ways that a post or comment could violate rule 2.

  • Not sufficiently concerned with English-speaking residents of Japan. The mods will never require that users reveal their real-life country of residence, and therefore current Japanese residency is not technically a prerequisite for contributing. However, the purpose of the sub is to provide a place for users to discuss finance and tech issues that relate to them as residents of Japan.

  • Not sufficiently connected to finance and tech. We tend to interpret "finance" very broadly in this context (anything related to money, basically), but we interpret "tech" more narrowly. Obviously tech that has some kind of financial aspect to it is fine, and general discussions of productivity/lifestyle tech will also typically be allowed, but we want to leave the community a bit of flexibility to work out its own boundaries with respect to "tech" content. So there may be some inconsistency around this issue in the sub's early months. Please keep this in mind if we ask you to move something to the weekly "off-topic" thread.

  • Not sufficiently collaborative and constructive. This part of rule 2 requires contributions to build on other users' prior contributions rather than merely disregard or dismiss them. Of course, this doesn't mean that users can't criticize other users' comments/posts. But it does mean that such criticism needs to be explained or justified in some way. In practice, the application of this rule will be heavily context-dependent. For example, if one user has posted merely "I love the pension system", then a reply stating "I hate the pension system" wouldn't violate rule 2; but if one user has posted a lengthy explanation of certain positive aspects of the pension system, then a reply stating merely "I hate the pension system" would violate rule 2.

  • Not sufficiently connected to reality. For discussions in the subreddit to be constructive, it is necessary for posts and comments to reflect a base level of respect for some fundamental aspects of the world we live in. For this reason, rule 2 generally prohibits outlandish "conspiracy theory"-type content that promotes or assumes ideas that are so unfounded or unjustifiable as to make constructive discussion impossible. The expectation is that users make sincere efforts to justify fact-based claims by reference to primary sources as much as possible. This doesn't mean every claim ever made must be rigorously sourced, of course. But it does mean that persistent refusal to explain or justify an assertion could cause that contribution to violate rule 2. Speculation itself is fine, but speculation cloaked as factual assertion is problematic.

Rule 3: Don't ask for professional advice​

It's possible that there are a few licensed professionals using this sub. It's also possible that there are none. Either way, our goal for this sub is to both (1) recognize that there are laws determining who is allowed to provide certain kinds of advice, and (2) avoid replicating or enforcing credentialism.

One of the key characteristics of professional advice is that you can sue your advisor if the advice was bad. In other words, you can rely on professional advice in a way that you can never rely on reddit posts and comments. This doesn't mean that reddit posts and comments serve no purpose, of course. But it does mean that the mods will remove posts or comments that are (explicitly or implicitly) seeking advice that the author intends to rely on.

Another key characteristic of professional advice is that it is personalized—it offers precise recommendations that apply to a specific individual, and it is justified by the advisor's actual knowledge. Users should not seek that kind of advice in this sub. Instead, users should look to this sub for general information applicable to their situation, and expect any information they receive to be justified by reference to publicly available sources, rather than the actual knowledge of the user providing the information.

Rule 4: Don't provide professional advice​

As discussed in relation to rule 3, we do not want this sub to be a place for credentialism or gatekeeping. We also want to strongly discourage users from revealing personal information about themselves, and as mods we do not want to engage in verifying any user's credentials or identity. For these reasons, rule 4 prohibits users from providing the kind of personalized advice that would normally be obtained from a professional, regardless of their real-world credentials.

Rule 4 impliedly prohibits users from making claims about the possession of relevant real-world credentials, and it encourages users to cite publicly available sources for their claims, rather than relying on their own knowledge or experience. While we are not going so far as to require that all information be properly sourced, we are saying that users should be cooperative if and when they are asked to provide sources.

If you are a licensed professional, it may be useful to think of discussions within this sub as analogous to conversations you would have with your friends, rather than conversations you would have with your clients. When a licensed finance professional talks to their friends about financial matters, the advice they give would typically take on a different tone (more casual, less precise, etc.) compared to when they talk to their clients. Try to adopt that casual, off-the-record tone within this sub.

Rule 5: No solicitation or promotion​

Many of the discussions on this sub will inevitably involve praising and criticizing for-profit businesses, and we don't want to prevent users from engaging in those kinds of discussions. However, there will also inevitably be occasions when some users have conflicts of interest. These conflicts may be as small as a referral code incentive, or as significant as a professional advisor wanting to use the sub to solicit new clients.

Due to the anonymous nature of reddit and our aversion to any kind of identity verification, it is not feasible for the moderators to ensure that all contributions to the sub are 100% free of any conflict of interest. So our only real option is to remove any content that looks likely to have been posted for the purposes of seeking financial gain. Our judgement in this matter is unlikely to be perfect, but we will be transparent about our decisions and if you think we are removing too many false positives or not removing enough false negatives, we welcome your feedback.

Examples of the types of content that will generally be prohibited under this rule include:

  • Referral codes and affiliate links
  • Requests for DMs/emails/calls/etc. (either from clients or from businesses)
  • Links to webforms/surveys/petitions
  • Exaggerated/imprecise criticism of a business (e.g., "XYZ are the absolute worst!")
  • Exaggerated/imprecise praise of a business (e.g., "XYZ are the best in the country!")
  • Unexplained calls to action (e.g. "BUY XYZ NOW!").

Note that there is a page in the sub's wiki where users can add links to English-friendly Japanese finance professionals. If you fit that description, feel free to add yourself to the wiki, but please refrain from promoting yourself or your employer elsewhere in the sub.

Rule 6: Use the "US Taxpayer" user flair if applicable​

As described on the IRS's website here, there are two types of entities under US tax law: "US persons" and "foreign persons". Being a "US person" under US tax law will significantly affect your approach to personal finance as a Japanese resident. So to streamline discussions within the sub, we are asking users who believe themselves to be "US persons" under US tax law to attach the "US Taxpayer" flair to their username. (The flair will be visible only within this sub.)

To attach the flair, use the "Community options" menu on the sub's homepage (or equivalent, depending on how you are accessing reddit). If you believe yourself to be a "US person" but would prefer not to publicly declare your status as such, please refrain from asking or expecting users to provide you with information applicable to "US persons". If you do not have the "US Taxpayer" flair and you ask for information applicable to "US persons", we may remove your post or comment until you attach the appropriate flair.