How to Deal with Coins/Change in Japan

Have you ever thrown your loose change in a bowl at the end of the day and watched it pile up? In the US I've heard people recommend this as a simple way to save up for a fun splurge, but in Japan it can become a dangerous game because you'll accumulate so much change so quickly and then once you've got it, it's really hard to use.

Japan has coins that go up to 500 yen in value, and it always takes a little adjusting to realize that your handful of coins could pretty easily total $5 to $10 (or more.) Lots of places are cash only establishments as well, so there are a lot more opportunities to end up with a handful of change. Of course, the best way to deal with change is to actively spend it, but what do you do if you just weren't thinking about it and let a small fortune accumulate?

A friend of mine recently discovered that a family member had amassed a collection of coins heavier than he could carry, so we did some research about what to do. The bad news is, that unlike in the US, there are no machines like Coinstar that will do all the work and take a small fee, (Update: a commenter tells me that Pocket Change now offers these machines! I've never used one, and I'm not sure what fee they take so I can't vouch for them, but it's good to know) and banks also don't give out coin rolls for you to sort your own coins and turn them in for bills.  So here are the options we found:

Banks

Japan Post has a machine that will sort coins, but you have to have a bank account with them. There are some stories of people getting around the account requirement, but we were not able to.

Some local banks may be willing to accept the coins for a fee, but it seems to be up to the discretion of the person you talk to. We didn't succeed here either.

Some ATMs will accept coin deposits, but only up to 20 coins, otherwise the machines start to jam. 

Shinsei bank, the most foreigner friendly bank, does not accept coins in person or in ATMs.

Vending Machines

If you only have a small collection of change you can buy a bunch of drinks from a vending machine. They will accept all coins except for 1 and 5 yen.

Pasmo/Suica Cards

You can add value to your train card using coins. Pasmo/Suica cards can be used in convenience stores and some shops inside train stations, and to pay for most taxis, as well as paying for actual train travel. This is the best way we found to deal with with large amounts of coins. Unfortunately, they don't accept 1 or 5 yen coins.

The machines require that you add a minimum of 1000 yen, and they only accept 20 of each type of coin per transaction, except a maximum of 2 500-yen coins. So you couldn't just drop in 100 10-yen coins. But you could add 8 100-yen coins and 20 10-yen coins for a 1000 yen value, or 8 100-yen coins, 20 50-yen coins, and 20 10-yen coins for a 2000 yen value, etc. If you try and add more than 20 of a single coin it will just give you a polite message and start spitting the coins back out.

For this method I recommend sorting the coins first (preferably while watching TV so you don't go crazy) to make the process go more easily, and switching machines between transactions. I never had any problems with the machines jamming, but I was careful not to overload a single one with tons and tons of coins.

This method is slow and annoying, but we found it to work the best for our needs (no Japan Post account, and no desire to open one, and a very large amount of money.) If you've got some time and a little patience I think it's the best option.

1 and 5 Yen Coins

These coins are hard to get rid of! If you're not attached to the actual value I recommend donating them. Likely they don't add up to that much. McDonalds runs a charity and has coin collection boxes at the counter. If your bag of coins is larger than the box they are still happy to accept them. This is what my friend ended up doing, but any place you can find taking donations should accept them. Otherwise you probably need to use the Japan Post machine or slowly rotate them into the cash you're spending.

For the Long Term - Prevent Coins from Building Up

I know this is obvious, but the best way to deal with change is to spend it. It's really common for people to have coin purses, even men, because it's just so practical. If you need to, buy one. And instead of just laying down a bill when you pay for something try and use as many coins as you can. Even if you don't have the exact change you can probably give more coins than you'll end up getting back. Bonus: you get to practice lots of simple arithmetic in your head.

Pasmo/Suica Machines 

Believe it or not, this isn't all of them! We're estimating a $400 value!!

Banking in Japan

Banking in Japan can be a strange experience.  I know that a lot of expat are infuriated by banks on a regular basis, particularly those living in more rural areas, but until recently I didn't think it was that crazy.  Today I am left questioning what banks even DO here.

If you don't know anything about banking in Japan then here are a few of that basics that seem so strange to those of us accustomed to a different system.  There are no joint bank accounts in Japan. What this means is that we operate like most Japanese families: the account is in John's name and he makes the money, I keep the (only) atm card and manage our finances.  The frustrating part is that if anything ever needs to be done at the bank I can't do it, John has to take off from work, because I'm not on the account.

Living in Tokyo, John and I are able to use Shinsei, which is the most expat friendly bank.  It has online banking, and may actually be the only bank that does.  There is a hilarious decoder card you have to use to even log into the website.  We've never used it much though.  I just pay our bills in cash at 7-Eleven.  Cash is king in Japan.  In fact, I just heard that the first debit cards were issued by a bank last month.  That's right, nobody uses debit cards, and honestly credit cards aren't all that common either. Being a Shinsei customer we can use 7-Eleven (and a bunch of other) ATMs for free 24 hours a day, but a major inconvenience for a lot of people is that most ATMs only operate during business hours on weekdays!  Honestly, doesn't that defeat the entire purpose of an ATM?  On top of that, checks don't exist.  Instead people do bank transfers, which can be done in (some?) banks or at the Post Office (which is also the largest bank in Japan).  Weird. Many banks close at 3:00 pm as well, but luckily Shinsei has more reasonable hours.

Finally, when we (John) first opened our (his) account it was explained that the account was at that particular branch.  If he needed to do any banking he had to do it at this branch, not just any old location.  There is also a sign saying you can't actually withdraw cash over the counter, but there is a bank of ATMs next door.  Again, weird, but ok.  So, it's tax time, and one more weird thing about our situation is that there wasn't really any withholding on his paycheck the first year full year we were here, so we've had to do it ourselves (this isn't typical for expats).  John left work early yesterday to take the paperwork to HIS branch to do the bank transfer, but was told they couldn't do it there, in fact he would have to go to the head office which would mean leaving work early again another day.  We never got a clear answer on why they couldn't do it, but they adamant that it couldn't be done there. They did, however, offer some interesting advice.  If we withdrew the money from an ATM I could take the cash and complete the transaction at the Post Office.  We were very skeptical, considering that this is an entire year's worth of taxes being paid all at once in cash.  That's a lot of money!  But they very cheerily helped John temporarily raise the withdrawal limit on his account and showed us where the Post Office was down the hall (it was of course already closed).  So this morning I went back, withdrew the largest amount of money I have ever touched, felt like a drug dealer, and then paid it all to a Post Office employee who didn't even bat an eye.

In happier news, spring is definitely coming.  The weather is slowly warming up, and flowers are starting to make an appearance.  Only a couple weeks until Sakura Season!

Japanese Wedding Invitation Etiquette

I recently wrote about our friend Yoshimi who got married, and going to see her wedding photo shoot.  She's having a reception in July, and we just got our invitation.  Not only is the invitation really beautiful, it was an interesting chance to learn a little about invitation and reception etiquette.

Yay!

The most traditional sort of wedding reception is a large party including family and employers where guests are expected to give money as a gift in a specific gift envelop.  The bills should be new and crisp, and the typical amount is 30,000 yen (about $300).  20,000 yen is considered unlucky because it can easy be divided in half, and can symbolize the couple breaking up. 4 and 9 are also unlucky numbers because they can be pronounced the same way as the words for death and suffering, so 40,000 and 90,000 yen are never appropriate either.  Even if you can't attend you are expected to give this gift, so let's hope you don't know a lot of people getting married around the same time!  Being a student is generally the only exception that makes it alright for you to only give 10,000 yen, but if you're family you're expected to give 50,000 or more!  Yikes!  How do people afford these weddings?

Yoshimi explained that there is a new type of reception becoming more popular today.  The bride and groom will have a small formal party with their families, and then a larger party with friends that family doesn't attend.  Rather than giving cash in the envelopes the invitation will list the price of the event (per person, not per couple) which helps pay for the party.  This is known as a "1.5 party," though I didn't completely understand where the name comes from.  As you can see on our invitation the "contribution" is 12,000 yen/guest, which can be paid to a receptionist when arriving.  In some cases there will be a higher price listed for men than women because it is assumed men will drink more.  This probably feels a little abrupt  if you're a Westerner, which is unusual because the Japanese are not normally so direct.

The Invitation

An RSVP postcard is included with the invitation that is already stamped and addressed to the host/hostess.  Notice the stamp, because they're sold specifically for weddings.  Now here is where the etiquette gets interesting.  The address will say the return addressee's name in kanji and below that  行 (iki) which, in this case, basically means "To:"  This is written in very humble form because they are giving themselves no title.  As the recipient you should cross this out and write 様 (sama) which is the most formal way of writing Mr. or Mrs.

RSVP Front

On the back, circle whether you will attend or not (oops, she accidentally translated them backwards for me.)  Then fill in your name, address, and phone number.  The card is written in the most formal language, so it is polite to cross out the ご in order to be more humble.

RSVP Back

We're planning to attend, so in July I'll write all about what it was like.

Dollar Yen

One of the more interesting things about living in Japan so far has been the foreign exchange component. Because I am being paid in dollars and paying rent and eating in yen fluctuations in the USD/JPY can really effect our costs of living. I've thought about ways to hedge against this risk, but it seemed pretty complicated. So to make a long story short, I'm long dollars and short yen.

Back in September when we were first thinking about our upcoming move, the 1 dollar was worth about 78yen. As a frame of reference, a 16.9oz Coke is about 150 yen. With some products (like iPads) the company will just change the dollar sign to the sign for yen. This means that some things are about 20% more expensive. It's been around that level for a couple years, though when I first came to Japan in 2007 the exchange rate was 1 dollar to 120 yen. This is in large party due to recent U.S. monetary policy which sought to lessen the recession by increasing the money supply and keeping interest rates near zero.

Luckily, things have just started to change. There were just elections in Japan on Dec. 16th. Before the elections the ruling party was the Democratic Party of Japan. They had won in a landslide election after the Global Financial Crisis (called the "Lehman Shock" in Japan). In the run up to the election polls were showing that the Liberal Democratic Party (the "LDP") was likely to win the election.

Abe Shinzo, the party leader, made some comments about how he thought the Bank of Japan (the "BOJ") should set target inflation rate higher. The BOJ currently had set a target inflation rate of 1%. Unfortunately, rates were slightly deflationary meaning that the BOJ did not meet it's target. A new governor of the bank of Japan will be selected in March. At this point the USD/JPY had increased to 82.

Later, polls predicted that the LDP would win a super majority (2/3 or >320 seats) of the lower house. With the super majority they would be able to over ride the upper house's veto and have the freedom to pass laws without compromising with other parties. At this point the yen increased to above 83.

Finally, the LDP (along with it's partner the New Komeito) actually won a super majority of the lowerhouse. Abe is scheduled to take over as Prime Minister on the 26th. The yen is now at about 84.5!