Makes the world go round

There are several things that strike one about money in Japan. The first of them is that people here like to use cash. The vast majority of all transactions big and small are done with cash. I don't know if it's a psychological thing, but it certainly shouldn't be a technology thing in a gadget-loving society like Japan. Credit cards and bank cards sure to exist, but people like using cash.

The Japanese currency is, of course, the yen, which is pronounced 'en' here and is written as 円. The convenient thing about the yen is that it's exceedingly easy for us Canadians to convert Japanese prices into intuitive figures: at the time of writing, one Canadian dollar is equal to almost exactly 100 円, so all you have to do is mentally chop off the last two zeros in any price and voila! (And thanks to the ever-plummeting greenback, the same arithmetic is very nearly also true now for our Americans cousins.)

The 500, 100, 50, 10, 5 and 1円 coins. With coins all the way up to 500円 (that's $5 for you!), it's very easy to have quite a lot of change in your pocket!

The 1000, 5000, and 10000 円 bills. These have been pre-rumpled for you by your correspondent.
One amazing thing about paper money is that bills are always crisp and fresh. And this is true whether you get them at your bank or as change in a store or a restaurant. I suspect that there must be armies of Bank of Japan employees whose sole job it is to iron paper money so that it is always nice and crisp and pleasing to the senses.

Another amazing thing is that no-one thinks it odd when you offer to pay for even the smallest item with a 10000円 bill. (Try paying for a cup of coffee with a $100 bill in Canada or the US and see how far you'll get!).

Banks... I love going to my bank just for the kick I get out of being called Sawicki-Marcin-sama instead of the more pedestrian Sawicki-san. I suspect this 'my lord' treatment may also happen in places like car dealerships, corporate boardrooms, and the like, but so far I have only encountered it at banks. Ahh... it's good to be treated like you are rich...

The other thing about banks is how they use ATMs. In North America, banks see ATMs as a way to save on payroll costs. That's why ATMs are open at night and why many transactions are free if done through an ATM but carry a service charge when done through a teller. Not so in Japan. Payroll doesn't seem to be the primary driver for Japanese banks (at my bank there is a lady whose sole job is to stand there and be available in case a customer has trouble with the ATM!). And opening hours for ATMs at my bank seem to be scarcely longer than they are for the rest of the branch. So I will make a guess here and suggest that the primary driver is the bank customers' desire to avoid stranger-to-stranger contact which, for a people living in as crowded a country as Japan, is something unpleasant and undesirable. Not human-to-human contact, you must understand, just the stranger-to-stranger kind. So is this why my bank charges me 150円 to withdraw money out of its own ATM, whereas the same transaction seems to be free when done through a teller?

Another remarkable thing is the variety of machines that accept paper and coin money. Vending machines (of which there are myriad and which I must describe in a future post) all take coins all the way up to 500円 and always give correct change. And ticket machines in the subway and at train stations take paper money of all denominations. Is this more evidence of the desire to reduce stranger-to-stranger contact?

Yes, they are everywhere. And they always give correct change

The final bit of trivia has to do with taxes and tipping. There is a consumption tax of 5% here, but unlike in North America it's always included in the quoted price, so what you see is what you pay. And this rule extends to tipping. There is NO tipping in Japan. When you eat out, you pay exactly what the menu said it would cost. I cannot say enough about how pleasant that is... not only do you dispense with the mental gymnastics that in Canada or the US are necessary at the end of a meal, but it's a pleasant thought that good service is the norm rather than at the quid-pro-quo discretion of the server.

Makes the world go round

There are several things that strike one about money in Japan. The first of them is that people here like to use cash. The vast majority of all transactions big and small are done with cash. I don't know if it's a psychological thing, but it certainly shouldn't be a technology thing in a gadget-loving society like Japan. Credit cards and bank cards sure to exist, but people like using cash.

The Japanese currency is, of course, the yen, which is pronounced 'en' here and is written as 円. The convenient thing about the yen is that it's exceedingly easy for us Canadians to convert Japanese prices into intuitive figures: at the time of writing, one Canadian dollar is equal to almost exactly 100 円, so all you have to do is mentally chop off the last two zeros in any price and voila! (And thanks to the ever-plummeting greenback, the same arithmetic is very nearly also true now for our Americans cousins.)

The 500, 100, 50, 10, 5 and 1円 coins. With coins all the way up to 500円 (that's $5 for you!), it's very easy to have quite a lot of change in your pocket!

The 1000, 5000, and 10000 円 bills. These have been pre-rumpled for you by your correspondent.
One amazing thing about paper money is that bills are always crisp and fresh. And this is true whether you get them at your bank or as change in a store or a restaurant. I suspect that there must be armies of Bank of Japan employees whose sole job it is to iron paper money so that it is always nice and crisp and pleasing to the senses.

Another amazing thing is that no-one thinks it odd when you offer to pay for even the smallest item with a 10000円 bill. (Try paying for a cup of coffee with a $100 bill in Canada or the US and see how far you'll get!).

Banks... I love going to my bank just for the kick I get out of being called Sawicki-Marcin-sama instead of the more pedestrian Sawicki-san. I suspect this 'my lord' treatment may also happen in places like car dealerships, corporate boardrooms, and the like, but so far I have only encountered it at banks. Ahh... it's good to be treated like you are rich...

The other thing about banks is how they use ATMs. In North America, banks see ATMs as a way to save on payroll costs. That's why ATMs are open at night and why many transactions are free if done through an ATM but carry a service charge when done through a teller. Not so in Japan. Payroll doesn't seem to be the primary driver for Japanese banks (at my bank there is a lady whose sole job is to stand there and be available in case a customer has trouble with the ATM!). And opening hours for ATMs at my bank seem to be scarcely longer than they are for the rest of the branch. So I will make a guess here and suggest that the primary driver is the bank customers' desire to avoid stranger-to-stranger contact which, for a people living in as crowded a country as Japan, is something unpleasant and undesirable. Not human-to-human contact, you must understand, just the stranger-to-stranger kind. So is this why my bank charges me 150円 to withdraw money out of its own ATM, whereas the same transaction seems to be free when done through a teller?

Another remarkable thing is the variety of machines that accept paper and coin money. Vending machines (of which there are myriad and which I must describe in a future post) all take coins all the way up to 500円 and always give correct change. And ticket machines in the subway and at train stations take paper money of all denominations. Is this more evidence of the desire to reduce stranger-to-stranger contact?

Yes, they are everywhere. And they always give correct change

The final bit of trivia has to do with taxes and tipping. There is a consumption tax of 5% here, but unlike in North America it's always included in the quoted price, so what you see is what you pay. And this rule extends to tipping. There is NO tipping in Japan. When you eat out, you pay exactly what the menu said it would cost. I cannot say enough about how pleasant that is... not only do you dispense with the mental gymnastics that in Canada or the US are necessary at the end of a meal, but it's a pleasant thought that good service is the norm rather than at the quid-pro-quo discretion of the server.