When you travel Japan it’s important to keep in mind that Japan is still mainly a cash based society, and many places will not take your credit card or debit card when shopping in Japan. The banks in Japan and their customers have only really taken up credit cards in the last few years. Of course the more upmarket Japanese restaurants and hotels may take it, but you could get caught out since some places do make a distinction between Japanese Visa cards and those cards issued overseas. If you stay in Western style accommodation, your Japan hotel experience will be similar to back home. In Japan Visa and MasterCard are you best choice.

Because of this, many Japanese actually carry around large amounts of cash on their person which Westerners who travel Japan may feel uncomfortable about. Many people still get their weekly salary paid out in cash rather than being transferred into their banks in Japan. Their yen currency even has quite large denominations with 10,000 yen note available (about USD$1000). But it’s still worthwhile carrying smaller change for Japanese vending machines and ticket machines. When you travel outside of larger cities like Tokyo and Osaka you will find ATMs more difficult to come by. Another thing you might not expect is that in Japan banks ATM machines actually keep regular hours and will close over night! If you need to withdraw money overnight you might find yourself out of luck.

Probably the best bank in Japan to get money from is Citibank, whose ATM network is the most compatible with overseas credit cards and has many branches in the major cities. Of course in Japan traveler’s checks (or traveller’s cheques for our international readers) are also usable, but as with the credit cards once you travel outside of the city you will have a hard time finding somewhere to exchange them for you. So, for this reason you will find yourself needing to carry the Japanese yen around with you anyway.

Of course, the upside to traveler’s checks is that usually as long as you make note of the numbers and other required information about then, if they are lost or stolen you can contact the issuer and get a replacement for them. Major travellers check agencies will have branches in the big cities and always have a hotline number for you to call when traveling. It’s a good idea to make note of those details too and keep them somewhere separate to your travelers checks.

In all, as long as you make sure to always carry enough yen in case of emergency when you travel Japan, you shouldn’t have any trouble if anything untoward happens. Just don’t go relying solely on your credit cards and don’t expect the ATMs or banks in Japan to be always able to help you. Your home foreign currency is not easy to exchange either, and you will need to pay using Japanese Yen at all times.