Do I need cash in Japan, or can I use cards?

Japan's reputation as a cash country is fading fast. Cashless payments hit 58% of spending in 2025 (Japan's METI), and across Tokyo, Osaka and the other big cities you can tap a contactless card or phone at convenience stores, chains, hotels and department stores without thinking about it.

But cash is still essential in the places travelers love most: temples and shrines (entry fees and goshuin stamps), small family restaurants and coffee shops, market and festival stalls, older ryokan inns, coin lockers, and most vending machines (card acceptance there is under 10%). A useful rule: big things on a card, small and old-fashioned things in cash.

Here is the part that catches first-timers. Most ordinary Japanese bank ATMs (Mizuho, MUFG, SMBC and the like) simply will not accept a card issued outside Japan, they reject it and hand it back. Use these instead:

1. 7-Eleven (Seven Bank) ATMs: inside every 7-Eleven, open 24/7, English menu, take Visa, Mastercard, Amex, JCB and UnionPay, with a roughly 100,000 yen per-withdrawal cap. These are the go-to.
2. Japan Post Bank (Yucho) ATMs: at post offices and many stations, similar acceptance, but not 24/7, so do not count on one late at night.
3. Lawson and Family Mart konbini ATMs: a fine backup where there is no 7-Eleven, so look for the card-network logos on the machine.

For cards, Visa and Mastercard are the most widely accepted, JCB is good, and Amex is patchy, so carry a Visa or Mastercard as your main. The single most useful thing to set up is an IC card, Suica, Pasmo or ICOCA, which you tap for trains, most convenience stores and many vending machines.

The slickest route is a digital Suica in your phone's wallet: iPhone users can add Suica in Apple Wallet and top it up (some foreign cards are declined for the top-up, in which case load cash onto a physical card at any station machine). Set it up before you fly and you skip the airport ticket lines entirely.

When a card terminal or ATM asks whether to charge in US dollars or Japanese yen, always choose yen. Choosing dollars triggers dynamic currency conversion, a poor exchange rate dressed up as a convenience, and you pay more. Picking yen lets your own bank do the conversion, which is almost always cheaper.

Two smaller notes: tipping is not expected in Japan and can feel awkward, and travelers checks are effectively dead there. For how much to carry and the rest of the money picture, see the Japan money guide.

Common questions

Quick answers.

More on Japan

The little money things nobody warns you about.

• Taxis in Japan, and the GO appJapanese taxis are spotless, honest and metered, with doors that open for you and no tipping ever. They are also pricey, so from the airport the train usually wins. Here is how it works.
• Bringing your dog or cat to Japan.Japan is one of the long-lead destinations. Two numbers decide everything: the lead time, which is 7 to 8 months because of a fixed 180-day wait you cannot shorten, and the all-in cost, which runs into the thousands. Miss the sequence and the clock resets. Here is the order, the official route, and what to budget.
• Tipping in JapanThe answer here is simple and genuinely freeing: do not tip. Japan has no tipping culture, nobody expects one, and leaving extra money can cause confusion rather than gratitude. A polite thank-you is all that is needed.