Money and banking in Japan: The cash is big, the banks are very rigid, and everything we thought we knew about (consumer) banking had to be relearned in Japan, which does it in a completely different way.

Transcript

K: So, lately I’ve been thinking about banking and bill paying, which we kind off talked about – I want to say a month or two ago we were talking about cash versus credit society.

C: Yeah.

K: But I don’t think we went into the ins and outs of what it was like to set up our bank accounts.

C: I always like talking about money, so I’m happy to talk about setting up bank accounts and such.

K: (laughs) You do not like talking about money. 

C: Not my money.

K: I think you like talking about money generally, but not specifically your money.

C: Exactly.

K: So, one of the things we thought was super, super ridiculous when – so, this is just digression straight out the gate. So, we went into a mall, and I was so excited we were preparing our first international trip, and so I – we – I bought us matching international wallets. And I was like – the money holder thing, it had two different money holders, and I thought, “this is so dramatic” because one of the pockets for holding money is the length of our passport. And that is the only pocket that our Japanese money fits in. Now, American money looks comically small to me. 

C: American money is comically small. So, Irish money is

K: Like, the size of the individual bills, not the value. 

C: Right.

K: The size of the individual bills, now it feels like the difference between an American dollar and a Monopoly dollar in size ratio for me now, emotionally.

C: But apparently Irish money, and I forget there’s two others, are huge. 

K: Yeah. The British Pound, IK thought, was huge. I’m not sure.

C: So, the company that I work for makes wallets among other things, and it notes specifically that Irish money does not fit in the walle.t

K: (laughs) Ouch. 

C: Yeah, you have to fold it up. But Japanese currency is much bigger than American currency.

K: It’s bigger, and it has braille on it. 

C: It does. Holograms and – the braille is nice because you can feel it if you need that.

K: Yeah.

C: And… it’s higher denominations, too. Like, higher denominations are more usual.

K: And the coins – the coins go into ridiculously high denominations. So, there’s like the go hyaku en coin – the five-hundred-yen coin is really, really common. And, so, for me – I’m just going to do coin to dollars even though that’s not correct for the exchange 

C: Yeah. It fluctuates, but yeah.

K: Yeah. Just for simplicity’s sake. So, there is the one-yen coin, there is a five-yen coin, there’s a ten-yen coin, a hundred-yen coin, and a five-hundred-yen coin.

C: And fifty yen.

K: Oh, yeah. And fifty-yen coin. So, in the United States, there is a one cent coin, a five-cent coin, a ten-cent coin, a twenty-five-cent coin, a fifty-cent coin, and a dollar coin.

C: And a two-dollar coin.

K: there is not a two-dollar coin. There’s a two-dollar bill, but not a two-dollar coin. 

C: Okay, yeah, I think you’re right. 

K: I used to work at a bank. I know I’m right.

C: Oh, okay.

K: (laughs) And there used to be a hay penny which used to be half cents.

C: Half-penny yeah. 

K: But they did away with the half cent many, many years ago.

C: And the Japanese five-hundred-yen coin, depending on the exchange rate at any particular moment, is either the first or second most valuable coin in the world in terms of regular currency. I’m not talking about like… rare collections.

K: collector’s, yeah.