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Do I Really Need to Have Cash with Me in Japan?

Updated: Mar 31, 2019

Are you travelling to Japan soon and wondering if you need to have cash with you?






You might have heard that Japan is the cash-based society and wonder if you really need to have cash with you all the time when travelling to Japan. The answer is yes. Not only when you travel to Japan, but also when you travel to any countries, you should have at least some cash with you just in case.


Trends have been changing and Japan is preparing for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. They know many foreign visitors feel inconvenient when they can't use their credit/debit cards. So many malls, stores, restaurants, etc in large cities in Japan like Tokyo, cities around it, etc now accept credit/debit cards. Now there are even some restaurants where only credit/debit cards are accepted.


However, it's the fact that many small stores, stalls, vending machines, public transportation, etc don't accept credit/debit cards.


Therefore, it's safe to have at least ¥10,000 cash with you in Japan and if you're travelling to the countryside in Japan, you should have around ¥50,000-100,000 cash depending on how long your trip is and how much you plan to spend in Japan.


Even if you run out of cash, don't worry because there are many ATMs in Japan and if you go to convince store, most of them have an ATM and you can withdraw some cash.


ATMs in the convenience store
ATMs in the convenience store in Japan

Four people in this YouTube video talk whether or not Japan is still a cash only country and tell you interesting info as well. So if you want to know more about this topic, you should watch this YouTube video.





 

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