Tofugu: "Going Cashless In Japan"

Above, a souvenir shop in Asakusa's Nakamise Street. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

One of the things I've noticed when going to Japan is that it is primarily a "cash-only" country.

Generally, when exiting the Immigration and Customs door to enter Narita International Airport's arrival lobby in Terminal One, I make a (somewhat) sharp right turn to head over to the currency exchange window.

Before exchanging U.S. dollars for Japanese yen, one must complete a form with your name (and other information) and the amount of dollars planned to exchange.  I usually bring along $100 and $50 bills for this.  The office runs the currency through a machine for counting (and, I suspect, to determine whether or not the bills are counterfeit or not).  Some legit bills get rejected (generally it happens to one out of $1,500).  I usually will exchange these rejected bills at the hotel I am staying at.

Carrying around a lot of cash is a bit inconvenient, but since U.S. credit cards are very rarely accepted in Japan, it is an inconvenience that is necessary.

Tofugu.com has an article on "Going Cashless In Japan" that tells about the monetary customs in Japan as well as what options a visitor may have.

On cash, they point out:

Like most places in the world, you use cash for pretty much everything in Japan—because in the words of RZA, GZA, et al, “cash rules everything around me”—it’s not always convenient. You have to keep your cash reserves topped off by constantly withdrawing from ATMs, and that can be difficult because not all Japanese ATMs accept American bank cards.

Following this, they do note some options that are available to the tourist including prepaid cards (Suica is the most prominent with its penguin mascot) and payments by phone (beware, Japanese phones operate on a different system than American and most other western phones).

To read the article, go here.