Friends of ours will be visiting Japan in the spring to attend a wedding. What is the best way for them to get Japanese currency? Will there American ATM cards work? Are American credit cards or travellers checks accepted? Thanks for the help.

Cash withdrawals with ATM and credit cards can be made at Post Office ATM machines throughout the country. Once you know what you are looking for, they are easy to find. In the post offices, of course, and also in shopping centers, supermarkets, hospitals, some convenience stores. There is never one far off. http://www.yu-cho.japanpost.jp/e_a0000000/aa200000.htm explains in more detail.

American credit cards are accepted at many larger or more expensive shops. There are still a few places that will not be able to process a foreign credit card even though they display the logos for Visa or MC...they are very few though. Small restaurants, souvenir stands, drink and food stands....places like that will likely only accept cash.

Also know that ATM machines keep hours, meaning they close at night, some from 5:00, some are open later, and they don't reopen until morning. Only some are open on Saturdays, and fewer still on Sundays and holidays. There are a few, very few, that are open 24/7.

Check with your bank/credit card company about the charge for overseas transactions. Be sure you understand the charges so you can decide whether it is worth it to use your card.

Travellers checks are accepted only at banks that are authorized to exchange...it will be marked, and there is a special exchange counter. You need your passport, the real thing, not a copy, to exchange. Many hotels offer exchange service, but their rates are so far inferior to the bank rates I wouldn't even consider it.

I always seem to follow above poster's response.

Pay close attention to "Post Office ATM" mentioned above. The ubiquitous other ATM machines at usual convenient locations you expect in the USA will NOT TAKE US ATM CARDS!

For our recent trip, the POST OFFICE ATM was a godsend.

My experience with credit cards is as mentioned above, expensive shops (my rule of thumb was places where people would spend $100 or more at a time.) and large department stores. I would say the latter was barely usable as a sales clerk, while knew how to handle cc card, had to confirm the procedure, several phone calls to who knows where before giving me a slip to sign. It was nothing like using a CC in US or in Europe where you hand the card, get it swiped, and sign the slip, all in about 10 seconds.

Need to carry lots of cash as many quite pricy places don't take CC, such as municipally ran transportations and medium price restaurants.

Thanks any other tips on attaining cash or making efficient transactions in Japan? Thank you for your assistance and great advice.

Back to the top, I plan to brief my friend tomorrow so I hope someone out there can share some more advice about attaining currency and shopping in Japan. What does a post office sign/symbol look like in Japan?

Postal symbol:

http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2224.html


ATMs:
http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2208.html

http://www.post.japanpost.jp/english/index.html

The English page of the Japan PO.

The large red T with the line above it on the top of the web page is the symbol....

sorry, emd, I was searching while you were posting

no problema Mara.

Also, I learned by looking at the japan-guide page above again that there are in fact a few 24 hr post office ATMs in Tokyo and one in Kyoto (the central post office right by the train station- I used that one twice but never realized it was open 24 hrs.)

emd et al - I don't know if you had this issue when you used the Japan PO ATM...There is an English menu - I requested 10,000 ¥ - approximately US$100. Well, the machine did something or other, opened up and I saw nothing!! OY! I said to myself - I don't believe this, I can't explain my problem in Japanese to anyone - what the blank am I going to do?? Finally I realized that the bill, one 10,000 ¥ note was in a vertical position; actually it was so thin I didn't see it at first against the darkness of the machine. That was unlike any machine I have seen before or since except in Tokyo.....Just an fyi, guys.

Mara, there should be a TV show called "Funniest Travel Videos" and they should have had the camera on you when you thought that 1000 yen note was missing in action. You must have looked horrified. It is funny in retrospect, but it would have been awful if that $$ hadn't come out of the machine.

emd - not 1000¥ - 10,000¥!!! That was another thing - the machines gave out only large bills. Someone on another site suggested entering an odd number so you would get smaller bills, but I never found any problem changing them even for a small purchase.

I had the same thing in Switzerland last fall - the machine just gave out large bills - here in NYC my bank only dispenses $20 bills....

Thanks for the heads-up about the Kyoto PO near the Eki with 24 hour availability.

The machines will give 10,000 bills if you don't ask for an amount that can't be given in all 10,000 bills. If you ask for 25,000 yen, you'll get 2 10,000 bills and 1 5,000 bill. If you ask for 29,000, you'll get 2 10s, 1 fiver, and 4 1000 bills. You won't have trouble getting change for 10,000 bills anywhere except drink machines though.

oops, I meant to say 10000! I always do that w/yen, forget the last zero for some reason. That, and I get Asakusa and Akasaka mixed up every time.

Two things about ATM's in Japan. 1. Write down your password numerically as the Japanese keypads have only numbers (no letters). This confounded me on several occasions. I had to consult a cellphone and go back later. 2. We had numerous little surcharges for each ATM transaction, which was somewhat of a drag.

Yes, absolutely check with your home bank about charges for overseas ATM usage charges and/or overseas credit card charges. Sometimes the charges are quite high. Citibank, for example, levies a 3% charge on all transactions made outside of the US with a US account card. And as alibi13 found, ATM usage is charged to your home bank account as well.

Thanks again, KimJapan - I will write down that formula

Sorry, emd - I figured it was just a typo - it is easy to confuse Akasaka and Asakusa - that's for sure - I've seen it done many times on discussion boards.

alibi13 - most non-US ATM's just have the numeric keypad, I believe. Surcharges depend on your bank. Mine does not charge anything extra abroad although if I used a non-bank ATM here (US) they would charge me. I have checked my exchange rate with the offical Fed Fund rate and it is very close - maybe that 1% most banks charge. My credit card also charges only the 1%. I also just got a Capital One card which does not charge more than 1% either but haven't used it yet.