Japan is a cash based society. Credit cards are accepted only at very large department stores and very large hotels. Everything else is cash. I actually have not used my credit card since I got here (as opposed to the US where I can go two weeks without a single dollar in my wallet). When I showed up, they handed me my entire stipend for the summer in cash (the equivalent of $3000 in $100 bills).
This has surprised me greatly. Us Westerners have this impression of Japan as being highly technologically advanced, yet they have not caught on to the idea of electronic money very much.
Some of the implications: the smallest bill is 1000 Yen (approx $10), so you always have to carry change around with you. In the US I carry no change with me, and if I get any, I just throw it on my desk at the end of the day... where it piles up until Angela needs some quarters to do laundry. Now, I have to make a point to put some change in my pocket every morning. I make exact change at restaurants and stores very frequently now.
Now, it seems to be a very safe society. I think violent crime is fairly low, so nobody seems to mind carrying $500 in cash around downtown.
I'm not surprised. They could do credit cards if they wanted. That they don't doesn't mean they aren't highly advanced. They probably just don't want to have to pay to access their money. You could say that most Americans don't pay either, but that isn't exactly true. The vendors who accept the cards have to pay a usage fee. They pass it on to us in the form of slightly higher prices.
ReplyDeleteIt's true, I am so very thankful that you always have so much change on your desk. Thanks for mentioning me in your post :)
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