Do you need cash in Japan?
Short answer
Yes. Cards work in cities, but small restaurants, shrines, and rural transport are cash only.
Where cards work, and where they stop
Department stores, chain restaurants, hotels, convenience stores and major stations take cards without a second thought. In central Tokyo and Osaka you can go most of a day without opening your wallet.
The tail is where it breaks down. Family-run restaurants, market stalls, small shrines and temples, older coin lockers, some bus routes and most rural transport still assume cash. These are also the places most worth going to, which is the whole problem.
What to carry
Enough for a day of small purchases is the usual advice, topped up when it runs low rather than withdrawn all at once. Japan is safe enough that carrying cash is not the risk it would be elsewhere, but there is also no reason to carry a week of it.
Coins accumulate fast because prices are not rounded. A small coin purse is not a quaint local custom — it is how you stop your pocket filling with change you cannot spend at a card terminal.
Getting cash once you are there
Convenience store ATMs accept foreign cards, run around the clock, and have an English interface. They are the default answer, and there is one within a few minutes of almost anywhere.
Post office ATMs also work with foreign cards but keep shorter hours. Bank ATMs are the least reliable for overseas cards, which is the reverse of what most travellers expect.
Good to know
- Convenience store ATMs accept foreign cards and run 24 hours
- Coin lockers increasingly take IC cards instead of coins
Rarely — but a card on its own is not the answer either. Almost everything runs through payment apps, and a foreign card has to be linked to one of them first.
Some. Malls and hotels take cards, but stalls, markets and shared vans want cash — and locals mostly pay each other by QR.
Yes. Hotels and malls take cards, but street food, markets and short rides all run on cash — and the notes are easy to confuse.
Rarely. Cards and phone payments work almost everywhere, including buses and street stalls.
Some. Convenience stores and chains take cards, but night markets and small kitchens run on cash — and on the transit card.