Comments on: Tourist spots averse to foreign exchange

By: Philip Weyland

Philip Weyland — Mon, 20 Dec 2010 23:32:24 +0000

I once had an experience in Osaka that speaks volumes about official Japan’s obsession with paperwork and bureaucracy. I wanted to place a large item in a temp storage locker in the Namba train station, but because the locker only accepted 100-yen coins and all I had was a 500-yen coin, I went into the adjacent bank and asked for change. The teller handed me a form to fill out and told me to take a number and wait. Fortunately, the guy behind the counter at the neighboring Seven Eleven was more accommodating.

On another occasion, a friend wired me a modest sum of money from abroad. I went down to the Western Union office in Tokyo to receive it. The clerk asked me what I wanted the money for. I told her it was none of her business. She said it was a government regulation that they ask. I gave her an incredulous look and then told her I needed to pay for a sex-change operation for my dog. She wrote it down.

By: Miko

Miko — Fri, 17 Dec 2010 13:09:59 +0000

I’m not even going to go into how awful it was a few years ago when my then-boyfriend arrived from Switzerland with 10,000 yen in cash and a fistful of credit cards … during the o-shogatsu season. Let’s just say that we spent most of our two-week holiday either tramping about Osaka looking for ATMs that accepted MasterCard, or arguing about his lack of foresight in assuming that Japan was a modern and civilised nation when it came to dealing with foreign currencies.

Our relationship cooled rapidly after that experience.

By: Achren Jani

Achren Jani — Tue, 07 Dec 2010 04:51:55 +0000

I can’t say this is a big problem for me. I always divide my saving to Japanese banks as well as European, so I haven’t had the hassle of exchanging money for a long time now. But much can be fixed with the information that all JP Bank ATM’s all over Japan accept VISA cards for cash withdrawals (including VISA Electron), as well as many kombini ATM’s. I really see this as a case of ‘Much Ado About Nothing’.

But agreeably a cash-only society does not reflect modern times that much.

By: John L. Odom

John L. Odom — Tue, 30 Nov 2010 15:28:24 +0000

I too, agree. Exchanging money in japan is a pain. It can take half a day in a rural bank, if they will do it at all. The credit card fee of 3% is reasonable and more merchants should accept the cards, especially in tourist areas.

By: Clement Ong

Clement Ong — Mon, 29 Nov 2010 04:27:17 +0000

I agree. Changing money here can be a pain, and the rates here aren’t that good either. I always recommend my friends to change money in their country before arriving.

I can understand why smaller shops aren’t willing to accept credit cards because of the roughly 3% charges but in a tourist spot like Hakone, surely the benefits far outweigh the negatives