you don't save them for inflation you save them so any time you have to put money in an envelope you can have exact, largest to smallest denominations of cash.
Wait until the new 1000 yen bills come out, and they [don't work with any of the vending machines either](https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/07/world/asia/japan-bank-notes-vending-machines.html)!
Or they could just accept cash on the counter like millions of other restaurants. Or put PayPay etc there and rise prices 1.95% to cover the fee.
But nooooo my little family ramen place depends on this 2M JPY machine on the front!
Unlike other restaurants ramen has a 1000 yen cap. You also need someone to man the counter. Not all the time but you still need someone there. Also with ticket machines they're sure you have money to pay even if you're drunk.
I feel I've eaten ramen at plenty of places over 1000 yen. I don't exactly own a ramen shop, so no idea if the decrease in business is enough to offset the increase in revenue per bowl, but plenty exist today.
I'll also say that I've noticed a trend of places upping the price well over 1000 on their extra options while keeping the base (cheapest) option at about 950
Imaginary cap? Never heard of this.
There's already people there manning the restaurant. If it's 1 person op there was never any money for the machine from the start.
You can ask to pay before order is made.
I think over time it'll go over. Perhaps not for lunchtime but generally for ramen places that want to improve their quality to bust through the 1000JPY "wall".
https://toyokeizai.net/articles/-/646688?page=3
That would be really nice... Just let me pay by card and not carry coins everywhere.
Then again what can you really expect when it looks like they bought those machines in the 80s.
nah, i rather use my google translate option and take my time how i want my ramen made.
but idk what you're talking about dude. its extremely common for ramen shops to have vending ticket machines. i prefer it that way
Yeah a lot of them have a machine, maybe I should have clearer when I said millions of other restaurants, I literally meant all kinds of restaurants like your neighbourhooding Gusto :)
I was also thinking that maybe PayPay or somebody else should just make a customer-facing POS app so that these ramen shops could just mount an ipad where the machine was and go cashless only. If you want to use cash, still use the tablet but choose cash. Waiter shows you to table and takes your cash.
I wouldn't put 1000 yen bills into vending machines, but restaurant ticket machines and buses must update when the new bill comes out otherwise there will be a lot of disruption :S
Most restaurants around that aren't big chains have a pouch of replacement old coins you can exchange in case you have one the machine won't accept. Same system if you walk in with any bill larger than 1000.
Oh I meant like a drink vending machine just randomly on the street. I wouldn't mind resturant machines as you say I could just ask for the shop to exchange the coins.
The installation of new IC card readers would be a cheap investment, so restaurants can prob afford it considering there is usually only one machine. The issue is more so the new bills using newer technology for verification (holographic-like in the UK bills), so it's not as simple as buying parts you'd have to replace the whole machine which would then indeed be expensive. I think most stores are starting to explore touch payment methods recently so maybe we will see a bigger shift as stores can't afford newer machines.
Buses are government-funded true but I've seen they recently updated all the change machines on the Kyoto bus in the last 6 months or so, so they must have at least some funding for such occasions. The issue now is whether will they truly care enough to update them once again, honestly I'm not sure why they didn't wait in the first place.
I didn't know that we were getting new paper currency this summer; thanks for the link!
Edit: Here's the [JP page introducing the bills](https://www.gov-online.go.jp/article/202406/entry-6075.html), along with reasonably high-res pictures of what they'll look like.
I heard a lot of vendors will update when the new notes are out, they’re waiting on the notes though so the 500 coins don’t work in the meantime. Undoubtedly some old machines won’t get updated until way late (if ever) though
Just as an FYI, the new 500 JPY coin was designed to combat excessive counterfeiting that was happening. Alot of governments will ignore things like this because with inflation, the juice is rarely worth the squeeze for most counterfeiters. In this case, the relatively high value of the 500 JPY coin (in comparison to other currencies where the highest coin value is usually 100 JPY equivalent) made this one trickier.
The bimetallic coin is significantly more secure and the coin validators will catch up.
Source: I work with the stuff excessively and have intimate familiarity with the industry/space.
You might have insight here: is the bill replacement that they’re doing also necessary? One of the comments on the NYT article mentions that Japanese bills are already hard to counterfeit and this is a vanity project.
I think all other countries renew their currencies once in a while, and there must be a good reason for that.
Hot take, the new face fo 10,000 Yen bill is known to have sired a dozen of illegitimate children. This is part of mass brainwashing of Japanese people to have children.
The article mentioned that they do it every 20 years, and the idea is to make it hard to counterfeit. Somebody in the comments mentioned that the bills are already really hard to forge though, and I was wondering if this commenter had any insight as to whether this was a needed change, or just a case of staying in the 20 year rhythm.
Given enough time counterfeiters hone their craft and get better. Changing up the currency every once in awhile makes them start over which disrupts the operations for awhile. Though I imagine they'll stick to counterfeiting the old bills for some time yet.
Eventually as the old bills cycle out they'll get more scrutiny. It was the same when the US changed the $20 and the $100 to the god awful ugly kindergarten design they use now.
Right, of course. I understand why this happens, it's not rocket science.
What I was asking about is whether counterfeit yen is a rampant issue. Are there more people recently counterfeiting JPY, making this issue urgent? Or are there not many people trying to forge these notes, and this is most aesthetic, and to throw off the few who are doing it?
Yen is one of the worlds top traded currencies so yes. Keep in mind a lot of this counterfeiting isn't happening in Japan and the counterfeits are being circulated abroad.
I find it interesting that each of the new people featured prominently travelled abroad during the Meiji period, studied, and then came back to Japan with an international mindset. They each went on to set-up businesses, institutions, and education centres based on their knowledge gained overseas.
Is this a reflection of the Japanese Government's will for Japan to further globalise?
I think the choice of personalities is not random.
Yukichi Fukuzawa might have been chosen as symbol of the Government's economic policy, and now since the future of Japan's economy is not measured in numbers of kettles or bridges, but in birth rates, it makes sense for them to choose that person.
Tldr; Have sex for God's sake
One of the main reasons for the current notes replacing the old ones (like the Soseki 1000 bill) was because of counterfeiting. So it seems odd to me that would be the reason again.
When did the 1984-2004 series stop being legal tender? [According to the Bank of Japan](https://www.boj.or.jp/about/education/oshiete/money/c07.htm), this and many previous series of banknotes are perfectly usable. Click on [その他有効な銀行券・貨幣](https://www.boj.or.jp/note_tfjgs/note/valid/past_issue/index.htm) and you can see many previous designs that are still valid, including the 1-yen note from the 1950s.
I've seen airport banks refuse to exchange old bills for foreign currency because they don't have the equipment to check for counterfeits, but that doesn't make them not legal tender in Japan. Some countries invalidate old notes, but thankfully Japan is not one of them.
I was pretty sure I'm remembering right, but I could be misremembering. When I get home I'm gonna check.
Though interestingly enough that part of the page doesn't seem to even mention the ¥2000 bills.
The 2000-yen bill isn't on the page I quoted because that's for valid bills that are no longer issued; this bill is on the page for the [current series](https://www.boj.or.jp/note_tfjgs/note/valid/issue.htm), which it is technically a part of, despite its rarity.
Clearly you know more about this than me. So they actually still mint some of them?
Anyway, I see, it looks like what I saw was a mistranslation in English of [this page](https://web.archive.org/web/20070808131512/http://www.boj.or.jp/type/release/zuiji/bnnew16.htm).
That looks like the BoJ had decided, because of counterfeit 10,000-yen bills, to make certain cash payments in only the new bills.
From what I know about the current series, there are still so many excess 2000-yen bills that they haven't had to print any for many years. In fact, the 2000-yen bills you see now still have the old name Okurasho 大蔵省 in the bottom margin rather than the new 国立印刷局 (National Printing Bureau) as the printer. I am sad to see the centuries-old Okurasho name disappear :(
> That looks like the BoJ had decided, because of counterfeit 10,000-yen bills, to make certain cash payments in only the new bills.
Yea that's what I understood it to say when I read it.
I'll have to look at my 2000 yen bill, I never noticed that. But also I probably never checked.
And I haven't seen a machine that takes them since 2022. I always keep that one coin, for experiment purposes.
Edit : well, I tried one this morning and it worked. My bad.
I run into machines that don't take them all the time. I heard they're waiting to replace the mechanism until the new 1000 bill comes out, then they'll update both.
I don’t use coin machines much, but I’ve been to several gacha and claw machine/crane game stores recently in shinjuku and akihabara where the coin exchange machines don’t accept the new 500 yen coins. Most of the machines had a sign on them stating they didn’t accept the new coins.
Like 95% of vending machines don't take them here. My local coin laundry exchange machine doesn't take them either.
Might just start tossing them in a jar to get some savings.
It's not on the mint, its on the downstream services. The update for the validators was provided almost immediately after release. Blame the laziness of those businesses, not the government.
I'm pretty sure the market understanding is that "no, it will never catch up" because replacing the coin validators in old machines costs about 20k per machine plus manhours, and the total cost for vending machine companies simply isn't worth the tiny loss in revenue that this mild inconvenience causes. New machines will work but the old ones aren't getting updated.
Case in point, of the 12 or so vending machines within a kilometer of my house, zero of them accept the new 500 yen coin.
Most will catch up in a few years I’m sure. But I’m thinking about this vending machine on the street my wife grew up on, where the owner has created his own “mystery drink” option (it’s cheaper but you don’t know what you’ll get until you buy it). According to her he’s been doing this for at least 30 years now. Somehow I don’t think these updates will be a priority for that guy, and there are a lot of vending machines like that in Japan. Everything will break eventually I guess.
How hard might it be for a new competitor to come in with a much, much cheaper vending machine replacement? I mean $19,000 USD seems absurd.
My naive thought is that you hook a touchscreen display or tablet up to a receipt printer and scanner, and you're most of the way to a new ticket vending machine. But how hard is it to implement the security features? Do you need anything more than off the shelf hardware?
There are already capsule gacha machines like that and a lot of machines, especially the coke ones, have a touch card payment option.
Honestly, people should stop worrying about coins and bills and transition to cashless methods. The sooner the better.
Yeah, I get that, but setting aside the cashless argument, the question is how much of a leap is it to get cash security feature verification on a setup like that.
Sure. But until then it's a crime that a legitimate payment can't be accepted *cries while reaching down to get my new 500 yen coin back because I forgot the machines won't accept them, again*
I have definitely got counterfeit 500 yen coins before. Just the other day I got one, and found out when I tried to use it at a 7/11. The machine spit it out with a message, clerk took my coin, and went in the back and gave me a new one. The coin she gave me was noticeably heavier. It was like the third or fourth time that I've been sure a 500 yen coin was bogus.
Here's an old comment that I wrote when the topic came up last time:
Read about this whole thing a while ago when I got stuck with one of the new 500 yen coins for the first time.
There are 3 generations of the 500 yen coin:
* 1st gen: Cupronickel (1982-1999)
* 2nd gen: Nickel-brass (2000-2020)
* 3rd gen: Bi-metallic (Design similar to the Euro coins) (2021-Now)
As the other commenter said, the trick of drilling 500 won coins to reduce weight and to trick wending machines only worked with the 1st generation of the 500 yen coin since they had the same diameter and material, but the 500 won was heavier.
The 2nd gen nickel-brass coin was introduced to combat this in 2 ways:
1. Changes in weight and thickness
2. New material
This meant that vending machines could check if the coins were genuine by running electricity through the coin and checking for specific conductivity.
Also, IIRC the way that the machines operated in regards to giving you back the inserted money was changed. It used to be that when you pressed the lever to get your money back, the machine would dispense coins from the internal storage instead of the actual coins that you inserted, so you could insert the fake coin, ask for money to be returned, and walk away with genuine 500 yen.
However, this didn't solve the issue completely and the new way was to make fakes out of raw materials.
Hence the 3rd gen of 500 yen coins. The only problem was that the way that machines would check the coins by measuring conductivity wouldn't match the value of the 2nd gen 500 yen coin and the machine would reject it as a fake.
To fix this issue, all of the machines have to be modified to properly detect the 3rd gen coins, which is probably going to take a while and is the reason why it's still rejected in a lot of places.
Businesses can ignore the new 500 yen coin, but they can't ignore the new 1000/5000/10000 notes all coming out next month, and most vending machines will be updated to handle all of them.
You're still going to be out of luck with that rusty 100円 knockoff drink machine at the back of the parking lot that was last restocked in the Showa era.
My parents got a bunch of ¥2000 bills when they came to visit (probably because they're American and assumed that was the "main" bill, similar to how the US $20 bill is king) and were endlessly frustrated that so many places would not take them.
I swapped them for some denominations that were easier to spend, but it took me YEARS to get through all the ¥2000 bills-- even when a place could take it, they always seemed pretty reluctant!
When I visited Japan, my host told me that currency exchanges in airports specifically give foreign travelers the ¥2000 note because they (the tourists) don't know any better, and locals don't take them. They're basically trying to get rid of them (or put more in circulation?) via clueless tourists
That makes sense!
Considering most of the people who have ¥2000 bills are (foreign, probably western) tourists, the bills probably also serve as a way to track the places that gaijin go by the amount of ¥2000 bills any given location receives. Free real-time demographics info!
I am an unabashed 2000-yen-bill lover (the Shuri Gate in Okinawa on the front, and calligraphy from Genji on the back!) and wish they were still used more often.
They got their start with an international summit held in Okinawa in 2000, and when I used to visit Okinawa more than 10-15 years ago, the ATMs gave them out by default. These days most banks charge you to exchange bills, but last time I was in an airport, I asked them if I could exchange four or five 10,000-yen bills for them, and they did so for free. I love using the 2000-yen bills from time to time; they're just so beautiful. I'm glad they're not being replaced by the ugly designs that are coming out this summer.
Reminds me of a vending machine at a U.S. national park for something expensive (can’t remember what, maybe parking) that gave change in Susan B Anthonys.
Couldn’t you just deposit them in an ATM? I’ve never tried, but I assume ATMs of all machines would accept them. I personally keep one note in a drawer and take it out and look at it sometimes, great fun if the power goes out.
This is what my store does. Customers are 99% tourists so we come across 2000 yen notes from time to time. Just throw everything in the ATM and make it someone else's problem.
> I swapped them for some denominations that were easier to spend, but it took me YEARS to get through all the ¥2000 bills-- even when a place could take it, they always seemed pretty reluctant!
Most ATMs take them just fine, just deposit them. Or charge a SUICA, etc.
US banks still have them it seems. Friends from NY were here in late April and they had gotten a bunch. I don't think they had any issue in using them (but not sure). And when I was in Kyoto in late May, a temple gave one back to me in change, and in conversation, the staff said they had received them from American tourists.
My parents get them too from the states, but I have straight up made stores take them. One time I was told no, and I insisted, lady puts it in the machine.... And no problem.
I hear they are common in Okinawa.... Because of Americans.
This is interesting, obviously most machines don't take them, but I've never had a cashier refuse one. Usually they're amused and one time they had never seen one before and called over the manager, but always accepted in the end.
I got a bunch of those in Canada when I did some exchange for yen at the airport. I was handing them out like souvenirs when I got here people were in disbelief.
The ATMs in Lawsons used to dispense them when they were a new thing. It was great! Guess a lot of people didn't feel the same because they stopped, and I haven't seen a 2000en bill in many many years.
I got home from work at like 1am in the rain, last train. Walk to car parking near boonies station, proceed to leave and pay with the 500 yen coin I set aside for this... It's one of these and doesn't take. Queue arguing with toll operator customer service on the phone who told me to walk to a convini in the rain, buy something cheap and get different coins to pay.
I did not. I expected to walk to the car parking from the station, which is a short dash. My rage mostly came from the operator telling me it is my problem that his machine can't accept legal tender.
I think some/most machines have a separate stock for income and for change (they don't recycle what gets in as change).
When inserting a coin the machine needs to be able to recognize it, while change coins are in specific slots that contain a bunch of each coin type. So they can be filled with new coins as change, while the machine may still not be able to recognize new coins for payment.
Periodical note/coin replacements have generated great demand for machine manufacturers of coin/note recognition components such as GLORY but recently whole machine manufacturers and customers have been shifting to cashless.
More machines will give up supporting new notes/coins and go cashless only in the future.
Anyway thank you, OP for making the chance to know new 500 yen coins have been issued.
Buses around 1 year ago, I think, changed to allow the new 500 yen coin, so companies could update the coin slots on most machines. It's just a question of whether they want to pay that much money to engineers and for the parts. I'm sure bigger brands like Cola-Cola would be fine (in fact, I think I used a new 500-yen coin in one of them before). But for smaller brands like 'change with 'モ ェリオ' I'm not so sure because they only charge 100 yen for the most part or other machines that charge much less, like 50 yen.
They remind me of twoonies at home in Canada, especially the gold coloured inset with silver outer ring, so that’s nice.
But yeah they don’t seem to have much use for vending… I’d expect this to change with time, machines accepting the 500 will be making way more profit.
The new 500en coin was created as an anti-counterfeiting measure. Same reason they changed it last time, and the "Why the ^@&(#$ haven't vending machines been updated??" thing is also the same as last time. Companies take *forever* to do it.
What I really don't like about it is that the government spent a **HUGE** amount of money on the new coin, forced companies to change all their vending machine coin systems, caused everyone a buttload of inconvenience, and they didn't even bother to change the design of the coin!!! At least they could have given us something new and interesting, not just the same basic design the 500en coin has had since it was introduced over 40 years ago! Besides the aesthetics, a new design would make it 100x easier to tell at a glance if you have a new coin (won't work) or an old coin (probably works).
/rant
They will, in time, modify or replace the vending machines. By that time, you will have saved enough 500 yens to buy an akiya in Tochigi and take early retirement.
I once had a machine return a new one that didn’t accept new ones. We kind of had the same type of crisis in Canada with the introduction of the two dollar coin. Eventually it’ll all start to work again.
That happens every time they redesign currency--it takes time (sometimes a LOOOONG time) for the machine makers to catch up. It is quite frustrating.
I propose (as if anyone will ever do anything with this) a reasonable solution for the dillemma.
1--design new currency.
2--inform the vending machine makers (ESPECIALLY THE ONES FOR TRAINS!!!!) ahead of actual production to give lead time to re-set/redesign the vending machines' "stick money here" parts (Not feeling technical, so forgive my lack of eloquence)
3--rennovated mmoney recepticle thingys get tested---
4--Introduce the new machines which accept the new and old currency about a month before the new currency is rolled out to the public
5--introduce new currency.
While clunky, I think it is a better way than the status quo (Introduce new currency that nobody can actually use at least half the time, then let the vending machine makers catch up)...
Just a random not yet enough coffee thought
These days I only use vending machines if they're COKE-ON compatible.
If I can't pay with my phone, I don't really need it.
Even outside of major cities I don't feel the need to carry cash that much these days.
Changing the money designs needlessly is one of the stupidest things Japan has done in its history. Even worse when Japan refuses to update machines that require coins to get anything.
YES!!! IF ANYONE HAS ANY OF THESE USELESS CRAP COINS, PLEASE BRING THEM TO SHIBUYA HACHIKO AT 10PM TONIGHT I WILL COLLECT THEM FROM YOU AND TAKE THEM AWAY TO PUT THEM AWAY FOREVER.
THANK YOU FOR CALLIN THIS OUT!!!
500 yen coins should really be used only when you're spending more than 500 yen anyway.
If you're buying a beverage at a vending machine for 140 yen you're still getting like 4 coins back from the one you're using.
And vending machines are the perfect place to get rid of 10 yen coins anyway.
Also it may be very region dependent, but I haven't had issues with the new coins for a year now.
Is there a new 500 yen coin? The 500 yen coin I have been using came out in 1982. My wife saves them in a 20 liter water cool bottle (the big blue ones for your household water cooler) and its about 3/4 full. We're saving to take the kids to Disneyland.
Same as the previous update. We’ll have a short period of instability and easily-dealt-with chaos, followed by a new reign. Soon thereafter, disgruntled japanlife redditors will be complaining about shops that haven’t updated their machines (“they’re soooo Reiwa 5!”) and old people trying to use their outdated coins. All of this has happened before, and all of this will happen again
My main concern with the new bills is that the government is going to be introducing a lot more money into the economy since the old bills aren't being removed. The value of yen is already so low and I'm worried about what the effects of adding a bunch of currency are going to be.
1. Not really new anymore.
2. They are accepted at 90% of parking machines and vending machines. But just go to the convenience store 2 blocks down the road for your drink if not.
3..It is extremely humid already and only gets worse after the rainy season. Definitely not "dry"
4. Go complain about Japan in your home country if you don like it here.
I honestly hate that the government supports bills. They wanted to go 100% cashless for the Olympics (that is why so many apps started)... Then COVID happened and that would have been really useful...
All these cashless gung ho people I wonder if they've never had the bank randomly block their cards for bullshit reasons. I've had my bank just fuck me for no reason before "oh suspicious charge, someone tried to use your card in Japan! We've cancelled it!" Yeah great that was me and I specifically told you I would be here.
Like imagine you want lunch but the system is down so no lunch for you, or you can just buy cash money and eat.
Not even that weird. If you are wanted by the government for whatever crime one of the first things they do is check your credit card records so they can locate you and arrest you. They'll do that with cashless systems to. Probably having the option to block your transactions trap you where it is you are at.
Even assuming everyone is doing the right thing, no corruption, nothing, you're going about your business following the law with nothing to worry about, oh shit glitch in the system can't do shit. Can't get food. Gotta go call the help line. Oh shit can't do that because the payphone won't process your payment.
Then assuming bad actors at play, like damn the potential for terrorism seems high in a cashless society. If you can shut down the entire economy by hacking a computer system. Security on it will have to be tight. Otherwise what's to stop people from Dr. Whoing that shit with a sonic screwdriver and giving themselves unlimited credit chips?
Using vending machines is pointless. Even at a convenience store drinks are cheaper, but the place to get them is drugstores, where drinks are loss leaders. And why would you use cash anyways in this day and age?
This is just a bad take.
People use vending machines because they're convenient. You're not always right next to a conbini or drug store, especially out in the countryside, or at a park, or at the side of a road at a random rest area.
Price is not the concern here - convenience, access and availability are. See point above.
People use cash because it's ubiquitous, and not everyone has a regularly topped up iC card, nor do they want to use money on their transport card to pay for a drink.
Yes, because a pocket full of change is so convenient /s
Maybe it's just me, but self control and a tiny bit of planning trumps "convenience" most of the time. I can't recall the last time I got stressed out because I couldn't pay for something with a bag of coins.
EDIT: can -> can't
You're putting words in imaginary mouths. No-one is walking around with pockets full of change, or a bag of coins.
> Maybe it's just me, but self control and a tiny bit of planning trumps "convenience" most of the time.
Perhaps not *just* you, but you are a minority, yes. And I say this as a primarily cashless user - but I can appreciate and accept that physical cash still has a role to play.
Also how about this: what if you are deep and the countryside, at the side of the road, in a park, don't have any concerns about the price of things, don't have a topped up card, don't want to use funds from your card, believe that cash is king, and find yourself with a single 500 yen coin in your pocket, one of the wrong type.
Crazy idea: how about you accept the fact you screwed up, planned poorly and simply don't have that drink at that time, and don't transfer the responsibility of your own stupidity to vending machine manufacturers or to the Japanese Mint?
Your passion for cashless is a little creepy and somewhat misplaced. You also seem to have some weird vendetta against cash which I hope you can get over one day. Take it easy (seriously).
Me too. But I live in a huge big city. I don't even carry any coins or paper cash anymore. I do get a bit mad when I find the occasional store/restaurant that accepts only cash... I'm like, "it's not even inaka!!!! WHY don't you accept cashless?!?!
You’re not supposed to spend 500 yen coins. You’re supposed to save them in a jar.
Traditional Japanese inflation proof saving method. It works until it doesn’t. Spoilers: it’s not working
you don't save them for inflation you save them so any time you have to put money in an envelope you can have exact, largest to smallest denominations of cash.
Why would you need to put money in an envelope?
...so do you actually *live* here or?
LMAO we found him boys. https://preview.redd.it/vcpzi5um0b6d1.png?width=3840&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=054e210d1162292165c11e4115e3da7912a5bbd8
Because this is Japan.
Ah! American joke! So funny!
100% agree with you Btw are you info changing new ¥500 coins into old one 😉😉
I do this because they look kinda like gold doubloons and having a stash of them makes me feel like a pirate.
only valid answer
I also do this... I even got a wooden chest to put them in. I have one for the silver coins :)
You are the king of pirates!
Man, let me tell you about the 50cent euro coin....
Do your friends include a sword master and a reindeer?
No, but I wish they did!
アル
For those times you want the one-coin morning set. Source: just had one-coin morning set.
My one coin morning set costs 2 and a half coins now.
[You're getting the wrong morning sets](https://www.reddit.com/r/shittyfoodporn/comments/1dekxvn/500_us320_morning_set_at_a_cafe_velocce_in_tokyo/).
Omg if this doesn’t stay as the top comment, I don’t know what could possibly top it.
This is the way
Wait until the new 1000 yen bills come out, and they [don't work with any of the vending machines either](https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/07/world/asia/japan-bank-notes-vending-machines.html)!
RIP to all the ramen shops who are barely making profits.
Or they could just accept cash on the counter like millions of other restaurants. Or put PayPay etc there and rise prices 1.95% to cover the fee. But nooooo my little family ramen place depends on this 2M JPY machine on the front!
Unlike other restaurants ramen has a 1000 yen cap. You also need someone to man the counter. Not all the time but you still need someone there. Also with ticket machines they're sure you have money to pay even if you're drunk.
I feel I've eaten ramen at plenty of places over 1000 yen. I don't exactly own a ramen shop, so no idea if the decrease in business is enough to offset the increase in revenue per bowl, but plenty exist today. I'll also say that I've noticed a trend of places upping the price well over 1000 on their extra options while keeping the base (cheapest) option at about 950
Imaginary cap? Never heard of this. There's already people there manning the restaurant. If it's 1 person op there was never any money for the machine from the start. You can ask to pay before order is made.
Not much of cap but a wall. https://www.tenpos.com/foodmedia/management/open/17167/
I think over time it'll go over. Perhaps not for lunchtime but generally for ramen places that want to improve their quality to bust through the 1000JPY "wall". https://toyokeizai.net/articles/-/646688?page=3
That would be really nice... Just let me pay by card and not carry coins everywhere. Then again what can you really expect when it looks like they bought those machines in the 80s.
nah, i rather use my google translate option and take my time how i want my ramen made. but idk what you're talking about dude. its extremely common for ramen shops to have vending ticket machines. i prefer it that way
Yeah a lot of them have a machine, maybe I should have clearer when I said millions of other restaurants, I literally meant all kinds of restaurants like your neighbourhooding Gusto :) I was also thinking that maybe PayPay or somebody else should just make a customer-facing POS app so that these ramen shops could just mount an ipad where the machine was and go cashless only. If you want to use cash, still use the tablet but choose cash. Waiter shows you to table and takes your cash.
I wouldn't put 1000 yen bills into vending machines, but restaurant ticket machines and buses must update when the new bill comes out otherwise there will be a lot of disruption :S
Anything that disrupts ramen will be staggering
HELLO WE MEET AGAIN
Most restaurants around that aren't big chains have a pouch of replacement old coins you can exchange in case you have one the machine won't accept. Same system if you walk in with any bill larger than 1000.
Oh I meant like a drink vending machine just randomly on the street. I wouldn't mind resturant machines as you say I could just ask for the shop to exchange the coins.
Under whose funding? The government isn't doing jaaaack.
The installation of new IC card readers would be a cheap investment, so restaurants can prob afford it considering there is usually only one machine. The issue is more so the new bills using newer technology for verification (holographic-like in the UK bills), so it's not as simple as buying parts you'd have to replace the whole machine which would then indeed be expensive. I think most stores are starting to explore touch payment methods recently so maybe we will see a bigger shift as stores can't afford newer machines. Buses are government-funded true but I've seen they recently updated all the change machines on the Kyoto bus in the last 6 months or so, so they must have at least some funding for such occasions. The issue now is whether will they truly care enough to update them once again, honestly I'm not sure why they didn't wait in the first place.
You're very knowledgeable
I didn't know that we were getting new paper currency this summer; thanks for the link! Edit: Here's the [JP page introducing the bills](https://www.gov-online.go.jp/article/202406/entry-6075.html), along with reasonably high-res pictures of what they'll look like.
I heard a lot of vendors will update when the new notes are out, they’re waiting on the notes though so the 500 coins don’t work in the meantime. Undoubtedly some old machines won’t get updated until way late (if ever) though
It's a mess for car owners. Thank people who make laws, who don't drive cars.
Never thought of that but yeah: pedestrians must be responsible for the new bills! Times coin parking better get a government subsidy haha.
Just as an FYI, the new 500 JPY coin was designed to combat excessive counterfeiting that was happening. Alot of governments will ignore things like this because with inflation, the juice is rarely worth the squeeze for most counterfeiters. In this case, the relatively high value of the 500 JPY coin (in comparison to other currencies where the highest coin value is usually 100 JPY equivalent) made this one trickier. The bimetallic coin is significantly more secure and the coin validators will catch up. Source: I work with the stuff excessively and have intimate familiarity with the industry/space.
You might have insight here: is the bill replacement that they’re doing also necessary? One of the comments on the NYT article mentions that Japanese bills are already hard to counterfeit and this is a vanity project.
I think all other countries renew their currencies once in a while, and there must be a good reason for that. Hot take, the new face fo 10,000 Yen bill is known to have sired a dozen of illegitimate children. This is part of mass brainwashing of Japanese people to have children.
LMAO love that tidbit
The article mentioned that they do it every 20 years, and the idea is to make it hard to counterfeit. Somebody in the comments mentioned that the bills are already really hard to forge though, and I was wondering if this commenter had any insight as to whether this was a needed change, or just a case of staying in the 20 year rhythm.
Given enough time counterfeiters hone their craft and get better. Changing up the currency every once in awhile makes them start over which disrupts the operations for awhile. Though I imagine they'll stick to counterfeiting the old bills for some time yet. Eventually as the old bills cycle out they'll get more scrutiny. It was the same when the US changed the $20 and the $100 to the god awful ugly kindergarten design they use now.
Right, of course. I understand why this happens, it's not rocket science. What I was asking about is whether counterfeit yen is a rampant issue. Are there more people recently counterfeiting JPY, making this issue urgent? Or are there not many people trying to forge these notes, and this is most aesthetic, and to throw off the few who are doing it?
Yen is one of the worlds top traded currencies so yes. Keep in mind a lot of this counterfeiting isn't happening in Japan and the counterfeits are being circulated abroad.
I fucking love that. I mean it will do nothing but I've got to the point where these examples of Japan-logic are just funny as hell.
Inb4 you'll end up with 7 children. Do not underestimate the power of 10,000
And the 5000 bill has the "We made the glass ceiling a long time ago, and look how much we haven't changed!" story we all love.
I find it interesting that each of the new people featured prominently travelled abroad during the Meiji period, studied, and then came back to Japan with an international mindset. They each went on to set-up businesses, institutions, and education centres based on their knowledge gained overseas. Is this a reflection of the Japanese Government's will for Japan to further globalise?
I think the choice of personalities is not random. Yukichi Fukuzawa might have been chosen as symbol of the Government's economic policy, and now since the future of Japan's economy is not measured in numbers of kettles or bridges, but in birth rates, it makes sense for them to choose that person. Tldr; Have sex for God's sake
I just hope when they replace the bills they go with the waxy type ones that Canada and Australia have in circulation now.
Haven't heard it described as waxy before... It's plastic.
Nope: https://archive.ph/stPG0
They will not.
One of the main reasons for the current notes replacing the old ones (like the Soseki 1000 bill) was because of counterfeiting. So it seems odd to me that would be the reason again.
When did the 1984-2004 series stop being legal tender? [According to the Bank of Japan](https://www.boj.or.jp/about/education/oshiete/money/c07.htm), this and many previous series of banknotes are perfectly usable. Click on [その他有効な銀行券・貨幣](https://www.boj.or.jp/note_tfjgs/note/valid/past_issue/index.htm) and you can see many previous designs that are still valid, including the 1-yen note from the 1950s. I've seen airport banks refuse to exchange old bills for foreign currency because they don't have the equipment to check for counterfeits, but that doesn't make them not legal tender in Japan. Some countries invalidate old notes, but thankfully Japan is not one of them.
I was pretty sure I'm remembering right, but I could be misremembering. When I get home I'm gonna check. Though interestingly enough that part of the page doesn't seem to even mention the ¥2000 bills.
The 2000-yen bill isn't on the page I quoted because that's for valid bills that are no longer issued; this bill is on the page for the [current series](https://www.boj.or.jp/note_tfjgs/note/valid/issue.htm), which it is technically a part of, despite its rarity.
Clearly you know more about this than me. So they actually still mint some of them? Anyway, I see, it looks like what I saw was a mistranslation in English of [this page](https://web.archive.org/web/20070808131512/http://www.boj.or.jp/type/release/zuiji/bnnew16.htm).
That looks like the BoJ had decided, because of counterfeit 10,000-yen bills, to make certain cash payments in only the new bills. From what I know about the current series, there are still so many excess 2000-yen bills that they haven't had to print any for many years. In fact, the 2000-yen bills you see now still have the old name Okurasho 大蔵省 in the bottom margin rather than the new 国立印刷局 (National Printing Bureau) as the printer. I am sad to see the centuries-old Okurasho name disappear :(
> That looks like the BoJ had decided, because of counterfeit 10,000-yen bills, to make certain cash payments in only the new bills. Yea that's what I understood it to say when I read it. I'll have to look at my 2000 yen bill, I never noticed that. But also I probably never checked.
You're correct, they are absolutely still legal tender.
The coins have been around for like a year and no signs of them "catching up" how long does something like this take?
The new 500 yen has been around for like 3 years. I haven’t seen a machine that doesn’t take them since 2022.
And I haven't seen a machine that takes them since 2022. I always keep that one coin, for experiment purposes. Edit : well, I tried one this morning and it worked. My bad.
Living in the tokyo burbs i feel most machines don’t accept them
The payment machine at Shogun Burger in Akihabara doesn't take the new 500 yen coins as one example, they exist and it's a pain in the arse.
I run into machines that don't take them all the time. I heard they're waiting to replace the mechanism until the new 1000 bill comes out, then they'll update both.
7-Eleven conbini registers will take them. Like the cyborg ones partially operated by a person.
I don’t use coin machines much, but I’ve been to several gacha and claw machine/crane game stores recently in shinjuku and akihabara where the coin exchange machines don’t accept the new 500 yen coins. Most of the machines had a sign on them stating they didn’t accept the new coins.
Like 95% of vending machines don't take them here. My local coin laundry exchange machine doesn't take them either. Might just start tossing them in a jar to get some savings.
It's not on the mint, its on the downstream services. The update for the validators was provided almost immediately after release. Blame the laziness of those businesses, not the government.
I'm pretty sure the market understanding is that "no, it will never catch up" because replacing the coin validators in old machines costs about 20k per machine plus manhours, and the total cost for vending machine companies simply isn't worth the tiny loss in revenue that this mild inconvenience causes. New machines will work but the old ones aren't getting updated. Case in point, of the 12 or so vending machines within a kilometer of my house, zero of them accept the new 500 yen coin.
Do you mind if I DM you to ask about that industry?
If you want. Not sure I can offer anything.
Most will catch up in a few years I’m sure. But I’m thinking about this vending machine on the street my wife grew up on, where the owner has created his own “mystery drink” option (it’s cheaper but you don’t know what you’ll get until you buy it). According to her he’s been doing this for at least 30 years now. Somehow I don’t think these updates will be a priority for that guy, and there are a lot of vending machines like that in Japan. Everything will break eventually I guess.
How hard might it be for a new competitor to come in with a much, much cheaper vending machine replacement? I mean $19,000 USD seems absurd. My naive thought is that you hook a touchscreen display or tablet up to a receipt printer and scanner, and you're most of the way to a new ticket vending machine. But how hard is it to implement the security features? Do you need anything more than off the shelf hardware?
There are already capsule gacha machines like that and a lot of machines, especially the coke ones, have a touch card payment option. Honestly, people should stop worrying about coins and bills and transition to cashless methods. The sooner the better.
Yeah, I get that, but setting aside the cashless argument, the question is how much of a leap is it to get cash security feature verification on a setup like that.
Very much doubt the gatchas are using sophisticated security methods.
Sure, but when will the vending machines accept them?
When the new bills come out. They don't want to send someone to service the machine twice.
Sure. But until then it's a crime that a legitimate payment can't be accepted *cries while reaching down to get my new 500 yen coin back because I forgot the machines won't accept them, again*
I have definitely got counterfeit 500 yen coins before. Just the other day I got one, and found out when I tried to use it at a 7/11. The machine spit it out with a message, clerk took my coin, and went in the back and gave me a new one. The coin she gave me was noticeably heavier. It was like the third or fourth time that I've been sure a 500 yen coin was bogus.
Here's an old comment that I wrote when the topic came up last time: Read about this whole thing a while ago when I got stuck with one of the new 500 yen coins for the first time. There are 3 generations of the 500 yen coin: * 1st gen: Cupronickel (1982-1999) * 2nd gen: Nickel-brass (2000-2020) * 3rd gen: Bi-metallic (Design similar to the Euro coins) (2021-Now) As the other commenter said, the trick of drilling 500 won coins to reduce weight and to trick wending machines only worked with the 1st generation of the 500 yen coin since they had the same diameter and material, but the 500 won was heavier. The 2nd gen nickel-brass coin was introduced to combat this in 2 ways: 1. Changes in weight and thickness 2. New material This meant that vending machines could check if the coins were genuine by running electricity through the coin and checking for specific conductivity. Also, IIRC the way that the machines operated in regards to giving you back the inserted money was changed. It used to be that when you pressed the lever to get your money back, the machine would dispense coins from the internal storage instead of the actual coins that you inserted, so you could insert the fake coin, ask for money to be returned, and walk away with genuine 500 yen. However, this didn't solve the issue completely and the new way was to make fakes out of raw materials. Hence the 3rd gen of 500 yen coins. The only problem was that the way that machines would check the coins by measuring conductivity wouldn't match the value of the 2nd gen 500 yen coin and the machine would reject it as a fake. To fix this issue, all of the machines have to be modified to properly detect the 3rd gen coins, which is probably going to take a while and is the reason why it's still rejected in a lot of places.
Imagine counterfeiting a currency that has lost almost 50% of its value in less than 5 years
No need to counterfeit - a Korean 500 won coin drilled out was used in vending and ticket machines
It is a bit dissatisfying to hear the coin pass straight through to the return slot
Businesses can ignore the new 500 yen coin, but they can't ignore the new 1000/5000/10000 notes all coming out next month, and most vending machines will be updated to handle all of them. You're still going to be out of luck with that rusty 100円 knockoff drink machine at the back of the parking lot that was last restocked in the Showa era.
Ha many machines dont even take the 2000yen bills which are 24yrs old!!
2000 yen bills are like… mythical pokemon
My parents got a bunch of ¥2000 bills when they came to visit (probably because they're American and assumed that was the "main" bill, similar to how the US $20 bill is king) and were endlessly frustrated that so many places would not take them. I swapped them for some denominations that were easier to spend, but it took me YEARS to get through all the ¥2000 bills-- even when a place could take it, they always seemed pretty reluctant!
When I visited Japan, my host told me that currency exchanges in airports specifically give foreign travelers the ¥2000 note because they (the tourists) don't know any better, and locals don't take them. They're basically trying to get rid of them (or put more in circulation?) via clueless tourists
That makes sense! Considering most of the people who have ¥2000 bills are (foreign, probably western) tourists, the bills probably also serve as a way to track the places that gaijin go by the amount of ¥2000 bills any given location receives. Free real-time demographics info!
I am an unabashed 2000-yen-bill lover (the Shuri Gate in Okinawa on the front, and calligraphy from Genji on the back!) and wish they were still used more often. They got their start with an international summit held in Okinawa in 2000, and when I used to visit Okinawa more than 10-15 years ago, the ATMs gave them out by default. These days most banks charge you to exchange bills, but last time I was in an airport, I asked them if I could exchange four or five 10,000-yen bills for them, and they did so for free. I love using the 2000-yen bills from time to time; they're just so beautiful. I'm glad they're not being replaced by the ugly designs that are coming out this summer.
Reminds me of a vending machine at a U.S. national park for something expensive (can’t remember what, maybe parking) that gave change in Susan B Anthonys.
Couldn’t you just deposit them in an ATM? I’ve never tried, but I assume ATMs of all machines would accept them. I personally keep one note in a drawer and take it out and look at it sometimes, great fun if the power goes out.
This is what my store does. Customers are 99% tourists so we come across 2000 yen notes from time to time. Just throw everything in the ATM and make it someone else's problem.
> I swapped them for some denominations that were easier to spend, but it took me YEARS to get through all the ¥2000 bills-- even when a place could take it, they always seemed pretty reluctant! Most ATMs take them just fine, just deposit them. Or charge a SUICA, etc.
US banks still have them it seems. Friends from NY were here in late April and they had gotten a bunch. I don't think they had any issue in using them (but not sure). And when I was in Kyoto in late May, a temple gave one back to me in change, and in conversation, the staff said they had received them from American tourists.
My parents get them too from the states, but I have straight up made stores take them. One time I was told no, and I insisted, lady puts it in the machine.... And no problem. I hear they are common in Okinawa.... Because of Americans.
This is interesting, obviously most machines don't take them, but I've never had a cashier refuse one. Usually they're amused and one time they had never seen one before and called over the manager, but always accepted in the end.
Years ago in Europe a buddy owed me a couple of thousand Euro, and paid me with €500 notes. Not exactly something you can spend at a small business...
There are 2000 yen bills?
I got a bunch of those in Canada when I did some exchange for yen at the airport. I was handing them out like souvenirs when I got here people were in disbelief.
They never did or cared about them anyway.
Most machines just don’t take anything of larger denomination than 1000.
The ATMs in Lawsons used to dispense them when they were a new thing. It was great! Guess a lot of people didn't feel the same because they stopped, and I haven't seen a 2000en bill in many many years.
Dry summer? Where’s that?
Exactly! It's been humid for the last 6 weeks.
And I have stopped using coins in machines and for miscellaneous shopping. Tap tap tap The future is now.
I got home from work at like 1am in the rain, last train. Walk to car parking near boonies station, proceed to leave and pay with the 500 yen coin I set aside for this... It's one of these and doesn't take. Queue arguing with toll operator customer service on the phone who told me to walk to a convini in the rain, buy something cheap and get different coins to pay.
Important question , did you have an umbrella
no but the convini sold them if I wanted, after I walked there in the rain. And they accepted credit cards as well as cash <>
I had to ask because my level of rage would have been determined by if I had an umbrella on me at the time or not
I did not. I expected to walk to the car parking from the station, which is a short dash. My rage mostly came from the operator telling me it is my problem that his machine can't accept legal tender.
I don't understand why I get them sometimes as CHANGE from machines that won't accept them as PAYMENT???
I think some/most machines have a separate stock for income and for change (they don't recycle what gets in as change). When inserting a coin the machine needs to be able to recognize it, while change coins are in specific slots that contain a bunch of each coin type. So they can be filled with new coins as change, while the machine may still not be able to recognize new coins for payment.
This made me chuckle. Hypocritical robots
Periodical note/coin replacements have generated great demand for machine manufacturers of coin/note recognition components such as GLORY but recently whole machine manufacturers and customers have been shifting to cashless. More machines will give up supporting new notes/coins and go cashless only in the future. Anyway thank you, OP for making the chance to know new 500 yen coins have been issued.
Buses around 1 year ago, I think, changed to allow the new 500 yen coin, so companies could update the coin slots on most machines. It's just a question of whether they want to pay that much money to engineers and for the parts. I'm sure bigger brands like Cola-Cola would be fine (in fact, I think I used a new 500-yen coin in one of them before). But for smaller brands like 'change with 'モ ェリオ' I'm not so sure because they only charge 100 yen for the most part or other machines that charge much less, like 50 yen.
They remind me of twoonies at home in Canada, especially the gold coloured inset with silver outer ring, so that’s nice. But yeah they don’t seem to have much use for vending… I’d expect this to change with time, machines accepting the 500 will be making way more profit.
*grumbles in canadian*
Ah, so the new 500 yen coin will become the 1 yen coin… Nobody wants to deal with those
Nah, at least the 500 yen coin is still worth more than the material it's made of ...
Many of the machines that didn't work with the new 500 yen coin are now working. This bill change that's coming is going to be the real problem.
Oh that tremendous suffering of the people here.
Just go to a 711 and dump your coins into the machine when you pay. It will do the math and reduce your change to as few bills and coins as possible
Friend showed me this, and now every time I use cash, all the coins in the pocket go in.
> pointless ... Is that because it's round?
The new 500en coin was created as an anti-counterfeiting measure. Same reason they changed it last time, and the "Why the ^@&(#$ haven't vending machines been updated??" thing is also the same as last time. Companies take *forever* to do it. What I really don't like about it is that the government spent a **HUGE** amount of money on the new coin, forced companies to change all their vending machine coin systems, caused everyone a buttload of inconvenience, and they didn't even bother to change the design of the coin!!! At least they could have given us something new and interesting, not just the same basic design the 500en coin has had since it was introduced over 40 years ago! Besides the aesthetics, a new design would make it 100x easier to tell at a glance if you have a new coin (won't work) or an old coin (probably works). /rant
lot of the Kanagawa / Tokyo train stations accept the new yen coin. It was a slow acceptance of course.
Do they work in 7 eleven and Mister Donut yet?
7 - yes misudo - they have human cashiers so yes.
But many MISDO have human cashiers that pack your goods but then point you to a payment machine for coins and bills
Wait for the next bills...
I cannot recall the last time I had an issue with the coin. Bit excessive to call it useless
Also have not had a problem with new coins, but I have with counterfeit coins that some stores have unwittingly given me.
yes, i feel you!
It's only going to get worse next month when the new bills get released and don't work in anything either.
I collect mine for the inevitable fallout.
I wish more vending machines would take Pasmo. Then I wouldn't have to worry about or carry coins at all 😅
You can use them in groceries or combinis.
They will, in time, modify or replace the vending machines. By that time, you will have saved enough 500 yens to buy an akiya in Tochigi and take early retirement.
Is it beautiful at least?
I once had a machine return a new one that didn’t accept new ones. We kind of had the same type of crisis in Canada with the introduction of the two dollar coin. Eventually it’ll all start to work again.
Haven’t been using cash that often in years
Just think of all the money you’ll save, though!
Give them away for birthdays and weddings
Just set up/use PayPay.
That happens every time they redesign currency--it takes time (sometimes a LOOOONG time) for the machine makers to catch up. It is quite frustrating. I propose (as if anyone will ever do anything with this) a reasonable solution for the dillemma. 1--design new currency. 2--inform the vending machine makers (ESPECIALLY THE ONES FOR TRAINS!!!!) ahead of actual production to give lead time to re-set/redesign the vending machines' "stick money here" parts (Not feeling technical, so forgive my lack of eloquence) 3--rennovated mmoney recepticle thingys get tested--- 4--Introduce the new machines which accept the new and old currency about a month before the new currency is rolled out to the public 5--introduce new currency. While clunky, I think it is a better way than the status quo (Introduce new currency that nobody can actually use at least half the time, then let the vending machine makers catch up)... Just a random not yet enough coffee thought
Or the subway ticket machine...
I’ve been under a rock, had no idea about new coins or notes.
These days I only use vending machines if they're COKE-ON compatible. If I can't pay with my phone, I don't really need it. Even outside of major cities I don't feel the need to carry cash that much these days.
Changing the money designs needlessly is one of the stupidest things Japan has done in its history. Even worse when Japan refuses to update machines that require coins to get anything.
YES!!! IF ANYONE HAS ANY OF THESE USELESS CRAP COINS, PLEASE BRING THEM TO SHIBUYA HACHIKO AT 10PM TONIGHT I WILL COLLECT THEM FROM YOU AND TAKE THEM AWAY TO PUT THEM AWAY FOREVER. THANK YOU FOR CALLIN THIS OUT!!!
500 is the new 1 anyway, in this economy.
You can buy things without using machines. So it's not useless.
I thought it is the 5 yen coin that is pointless
500 yen coins should really be used only when you're spending more than 500 yen anyway. If you're buying a beverage at a vending machine for 140 yen you're still getting like 4 coins back from the one you're using. And vending machines are the perfect place to get rid of 10 yen coins anyway. Also it may be very region dependent, but I haven't had issues with the new coins for a year now.
Is there a new 500 yen coin? The 500 yen coin I have been using came out in 1982. My wife saves them in a 20 liter water cool bottle (the big blue ones for your household water cooler) and its about 3/4 full. We're saving to take the kids to Disneyland.
Bus also doesn’t accept them
I was having the opposite problem with paying for parking, the machine won't take the old coins and of course I always have the wrong one.
Yes it is very frustrating!
Same as the previous update. We’ll have a short period of instability and easily-dealt-with chaos, followed by a new reign. Soon thereafter, disgruntled japanlife redditors will be complaining about shops that haven’t updated their machines (“they’re soooo Reiwa 5!”) and old people trying to use their outdated coins. All of this has happened before, and all of this will happen again
My main concern with the new bills is that the government is going to be introducing a lot more money into the economy since the old bills aren't being removed. The value of yen is already so low and I'm worried about what the effects of adding a bunch of currency are going to be.
Yeah can't wait the moment I can get away with cashless 95% of the time, and I live in inaka.
1. Not really new anymore. 2. They are accepted at 90% of parking machines and vending machines. But just go to the convenience store 2 blocks down the road for your drink if not. 3..It is extremely humid already and only gets worse after the rainy season. Definitely not "dry" 4. Go complain about Japan in your home country if you don like it here.
I pass on machines that only accept cash.
I honestly hate that the government supports bills. They wanted to go 100% cashless for the Olympics (that is why so many apps started)... Then COVID happened and that would have been really useful...
Cash is a basic human right
All these cashless gung ho people I wonder if they've never had the bank randomly block their cards for bullshit reasons. I've had my bank just fuck me for no reason before "oh suspicious charge, someone tried to use your card in Japan! We've cancelled it!" Yeah great that was me and I specifically told you I would be here. Like imagine you want lunch but the system is down so no lunch for you, or you can just buy cash money and eat.
and that's before we get into any weirdo government repression attempts thing :))
Not even that weird. If you are wanted by the government for whatever crime one of the first things they do is check your credit card records so they can locate you and arrest you. They'll do that with cashless systems to. Probably having the option to block your transactions trap you where it is you are at. Even assuming everyone is doing the right thing, no corruption, nothing, you're going about your business following the law with nothing to worry about, oh shit glitch in the system can't do shit. Can't get food. Gotta go call the help line. Oh shit can't do that because the payphone won't process your payment. Then assuming bad actors at play, like damn the potential for terrorism seems high in a cashless society. If you can shut down the entire economy by hacking a computer system. Security on it will have to be tight. Otherwise what's to stop people from Dr. Whoing that shit with a sonic screwdriver and giving themselves unlimited credit chips?
Using vending machines is pointless. Even at a convenience store drinks are cheaper, but the place to get them is drugstores, where drinks are loss leaders. And why would you use cash anyways in this day and age?
This is just a bad take. People use vending machines because they're convenient. You're not always right next to a conbini or drug store, especially out in the countryside, or at a park, or at the side of a road at a random rest area. Price is not the concern here - convenience, access and availability are. See point above. People use cash because it's ubiquitous, and not everyone has a regularly topped up iC card, nor do they want to use money on their transport card to pay for a drink.
Yes, because a pocket full of change is so convenient /s Maybe it's just me, but self control and a tiny bit of planning trumps "convenience" most of the time. I can't recall the last time I got stressed out because I couldn't pay for something with a bag of coins. EDIT: can -> can't
You're putting words in imaginary mouths. No-one is walking around with pockets full of change, or a bag of coins. > Maybe it's just me, but self control and a tiny bit of planning trumps "convenience" most of the time. Perhaps not *just* you, but you are a minority, yes. And I say this as a primarily cashless user - but I can appreciate and accept that physical cash still has a role to play.
Your whole reply was based on imaginary situations. The new 500 yen coin is as pointless as vending machines. This is the topic of the thread.
Just carry a backpack ? Also I seen alot of vending machines that's 100.
Also how about this: what if you are deep and the countryside, at the side of the road, in a park, don't have any concerns about the price of things, don't have a topped up card, don't want to use funds from your card, believe that cash is king, and find yourself with a single 500 yen coin in your pocket, one of the wrong type. Crazy idea: how about you accept the fact you screwed up, planned poorly and simply don't have that drink at that time, and don't transfer the responsibility of your own stupidity to vending machine manufacturers or to the Japanese Mint?
Your passion for cashless is a little creepy and somewhat misplaced. You also seem to have some weird vendetta against cash which I hope you can get over one day. Take it easy (seriously).
The passion is not for cashless. You're welcome to read the thread again. It's for personal responsibility and a little bit of self control.
I am cashless 😄. Don't care about coins here in Japan. Is very rare to find a store or jihanki that dont accept cards or id or quickpay or paypay 😅
>関東・神奈川県 That's why. Try going cashless in la provencia and you'll have a bad time.
Me too. But I live in a huge big city. I don't even carry any coins or paper cash anymore. I do get a bit mad when I find the occasional store/restaurant that accepts only cash... I'm like, "it's not even inaka!!!! WHY don't you accept cashless?!?!
When that happens with coins, try rubbing a bit of saliva on them, works sometimes.