Money in Japan: Cash, Cards, ATMs and the New Tax-Free Rules

A local girl in Nagoya — I pay for almost everything by tapping a card, and I still carry ¥20,000 in my bag. Both of those are normal here.

How much cash, honestly

Japan is far more card-friendly than its reputation, and still more cash-dependent than you expect. Both are true at once, and which one you meet depends entirely on the size of the business.

• Cards work: hotels, chain restaurants, department stores, convenience stores, drugstores, most city taxis
• Cash only, often: the small ramen counter, family-run izakaya, shrines and temples, market stalls, some coin lockers, rural buses
• Carry ¥20,000–30,000. That feels like a lot of cash to walk around with. It is completely normal here, and Japan is a country where you can do it without thinking about it

Which ATMs actually work

Most Japanese bank machines will reject your card without explanation. Four networks reliably take overseas cards — and you find them by looking for the shop, not the bank: 7-Eleven, Lawson, Japan Post offices and AEON supermarkets.

• 7-Eleven — the default. Open 24 hours, English menu, in all 21,000-odd branches. No fee on Mastercard, Maestro and Cirrus. Visa costs ¥110 under ¥10,000 and ¥220 above. Amex ¥220. Up to ¥100,000 per withdrawal
• Japan Post offices — the backup. ¥220 on everything, ¥50,000 limit, and they keep post-office hours, so they are shut exactly when you need them
• Take out more, less often. Where the fee is flat, four withdrawals cost four times one

TSŪ INFORMATION
what Japanese connoisseurs know

The most expensive button in Japan is the polite one. At an ATM or a card terminal you will be offered the choice of being charged in your home currency or in yen — and the home-currency option looks helpful, because it tells you exactly what you will pay. Always choose yen. That convenience is called dynamic currency conversion, and the machine operator sets the exchange rate: typically 3–8% worse than the rate your own bank would have given you. On a two-week trip that quietly costs more than every ATM fee you will pay combined. If the screen shows two amounts, the yen one is the right one, every time.

If you want to sidestep that spread entirely, a multi-currency travel card such as Wise lets you hold yen at the real mid-market rate and spend it directly. Worth setting up before you fly rather than after you have already lost the 5%.

Tax-free shopping changes on 1 November 2026

If you are travelling after that date, this is different from every guide written before it.

• Before: the shop deducted the 10% tax at the till, sealed consumables in a bag you could not open, and you walked out
• From November: you pay the full price including tax, and claim the refund when you leave the country
• The threshold is unchanged: ¥5,000 before tax, at the same shop, on the same day
• The sealed-bag rule disappears. You can open and use what you buy
• At the airport, before check-in: complete the departure process at a customs terminal or through Visit Japan Web. A green response means you carry on; red means inspection. Then collect your refund by the method the shop set up
• Everything must be bought within 90 days of your departure

Practically: budget for the tax at the till and treat the refund as money that comes back later. And give yourself an extra half hour at the airport.

Honest notes

• Tell your bank before you fly. A card frozen for suspicious foreign activity on day one is the single most common money problem visitors have
• Airport exchange counters are the worst rate you will see all trip. Withdraw from an ATM instead
• ¥10,000 notes are awkward in small shops. Break them at a convenience store early
• Tipping does not exist. Not in restaurants, taxis or hotels. Leaving money on the table causes confusion, not delight

More from us: this is one step of the full order of preparation. See also Suica and getting around and getting online.