Money in Japan:
The Complete Guide

—The 60-second version

Everything below is the same advice with the reasoning, the numbers, and the exceptions. Use the menu to jump.

1Before you fly

Most Japan money disasters are set in motion at home, weeks earlier. Five things to do while you still have normal phone service and time to fix problems:

1. Pack two cards from two different banks. Cards from the same issuer tend to fail together. At least one Visa or Mastercard.
2. Check 3-D Secure enrollment on both. Japan requires this verification step for online card payments, and cards that were never enrolled get rejected with a useless generic error. Look in your card's app for "online purchase verification," "Verified by Visa," or "Mastercard Identity Check."
3. Switch bank verification from SMS to in-app approval. Travel eSIMs are usually data-only and cannot receive text messages, which quietly kills both card verifications and app signups.
4. Book big tickets before departure. Shinkansen seats, tours, and anything with an early-bird discount — do it while your normal SMS still works.
5. Install and register the GO taxi app at home. Registration needs an SMS code. On a data-only eSIM in Japan, you can't receive it.

Full guide: why your credit card gets declined in Japan →

2How much cash to bring

Japan is far more cashless than its reputation — cards work at every convenience store, chain restaurant, department store and hotel. The problem is that the remaining cash-first economy is not randomly distributed. It is concentrated in exactly the places people fly here for:

• Small, family-run izakaya and restaurants
• Ramen shops with ticket vending machines
• Shrines and temples — offerings, charms, goshuin stamps
• Festival stalls, markets, street food
• Rural buses and country rail lines
• Topping up a physical IC card

Full guide: how much cash do you actually need →

3Getting cash in Japan

Not every Japanese ATM takes foreign cards. Two networks reliably do, both with English menus and both everywhere:

Expect a small per-withdrawal fee, typically in the ¥110–¥220 range depending on network and amount, plus whatever your own bank charges. Per-withdrawal limits are commonly up to ¥100,000, lower for some card types.

What about exchanging cash you brought?

You can, but for most travelers it's the worse option. ATM withdrawal on a decent card typically lands closer to the real exchange rate than an airport exchange counter. If you do bring cash as a backup, exchange only what you need to get started and withdraw the rest. Bring clean, unmarked notes — Japanese counters are strict about condition.

4What payment works where

The single most useful table in this guide. "Card" means an internationally issued credit or debit card.

One more gap worth knowing: PayPay and other Japanese QR wallets are not open to tourists — they need a Japanese phone number. Since 2025, several Asian wallets (Alipay, GCash and others) can scan PayPay merchant codes through partner arrangements, but Western wallets like Apple Pay's card function, Venmo or Cash App cannot. For most visitors, QR-only shops mean cash.

5IC cards: Suica, PASMO, ICOCA

One rechargeable card taps you through every train gate, most buses, convenience stores and vending machines nationwide. Which version you should get depends entirely on your phone:

Two more limits worth knowing: the balance caps at ¥20,000, and topping up a physical card is effectively a cash transaction — foreign credit cards don't work at the charge machines. Phone-based Suica avoids this entirely, which is the real argument for using it if you can.

Full guide: Suica money traps →

6Never pay in your own currency

At some point an ATM, hotel front desk or card terminal will offer you a choice: pay in yen, or pay in your home currency with the exact amount shown. Seeing your own currency feels safer. That feeling is the product being sold.

Where you'll meet it: ATM screens after you enter the amount, hotel checkout, department store terminals popular with tourists, and currency dropdowns on booking sites that quietly default to your home currency. If you want certainty about what you're spending, your banking app shows it within seconds — for free.

Full guide: the math on Japan's sneakiest fee →

7Restaurants and bills

They probably won't split your bill

Japanese has a phrase for separate checks — betsu-betsu (別々) — and at casual chains it usually works. At a busy izakaya, it often doesn't. The register tracks the table, not the seat, so itemizing four people's shared plates means a server reconstructing your evening from memory during the dinner rush. It isn't rudeness; it's triage.

What locals do, and what you should do: one person pays the whole table, and the group settles privately afterwards. It's faster, it works at cash-only places, and it's what the staff hope you'll do.

Otoshi: the dish you didn't order

At izakaya, a small appetizer arrives before you order anything and appears on the bill at ¥300–600 per person. This is otoshi — effectively a seat charge with food attached, and the reason a place with no tipping and no minimum spend can let you sit for three hours. Not a scam. Most places will not remove it even if you don't eat it.

Ticket machines

Many ramen and rice-bowl shops seat you only after you buy a meal ticket from a vending machine by the door. Older machines are Japanese-only and cash-only; newer ones take IC cards and have English. Have a ¥1,000 note ready and you'll never be stuck.

Full guide: why restaurants won't split the bill → · Full guide: otoshi explained →

8Tipping

Service is treated as part of the job, not an individual performance you compensate. Where service economics do exist, they're printed on the bill: otoshi at izakaya, a 10–15% service charge at hotels and high-end restaurants, a posted table charge at some bars, and a metered late-night surcharge in taxis. The rule of thumb: if it were expected, it would already be on the bill — and in Japan it always is.

Rare exceptions, all optional: private guides who work mostly with Western clients sometimes accept tips, and a small envelope (kokorozuke) at a high-end ryokan is a fading tradition. Never hand over bare notes; use an envelope.

Full guide: tipping in Japan →

9Transport money

Shinkansen tickets

Booking sites (SmartEX for the Tokaido line, Eki-Net for JR East) are where foreign cards fail most often, thanks to the 3-D Secure requirement. If your card keeps failing online, the escape hatch is simple: buy in person at a station ticket counter or machine, where 3-D Secure doesn't apply. You lose early-booking discounts, not the trip.

Two rules that cost money if you don't know them: on the Tokaido, Sanyo and Kyushu lines, luggage over 160 cm total dimensions needs a reserved "oversized baggage" seat — free if reserved in advance, ¥1,000 if not. And during peak seasons, non-reserved cars are suspended on some Nozomi services, making reservations mandatory.

Is the JR Pass worth it?

Usually no, since the 2023 price increase of roughly 65%. For the standard Tokyo–Kyoto–Osaka trip, point-to-point tickets are typically cheaper. It can still pay off for long multi-city loops. Do the arithmetic for your actual route before buying — and beware advice written before the price change.

Taxis

Cities are well covered by the GO app; registration needs an SMS code, so register before you leave home. Short-term visitors are charged small extra service fees. Late-night rides (roughly 10pm–5am) run about 20% above the daytime meter, and highway tolls are billed on top. In rural areas, "inside the service area" does not guarantee an available car — keep a local taxi company's phone number as backup.

Buses and rural lines

Boarding rules vary by region: front-door-first-pay in Tokyo, back-door-board in much of the country with payment on exit, and a paper numbered ticket system in rural areas. Some country rail lines don't accept IC cards at all — tapping in elsewhere and arriving at a non-IC station means sorting it out with staff.

10Shopping and tax-free

Two things the announcements don't emphasize. First, you won't get the full 10% back: retailers and refund operators are expected to deduct a handling fee of roughly 1.55–2.2%. Second, the customs check happens before airline check-in, so keep tax-free purchases accessible rather than buried in a checked bag.

Full guide: the November 2026 tax-free change →

11Consumption tax, and the eat-in trap

Japan's consumption tax is 10%, with a reduced rate of 8% on food and non-alcoholic drinks bought to take away. Displayed prices must include tax, so the shelf price is generally what you pay — no unpleasant surprise at the register.

Alcohol is always 10%, regardless of where you drink it.

12Traveling as a group

Everything above collides here. Restaurants hand your table one bill. Half your spending is cash that leaves no statement. Hotels went on one person's card months ago, the Shinkansen went on whoever's card survived 3-D Secure, and the izakaya went on whoever had cash that night. By day ten, nobody can reconstruct who paid for what — and money ambiguity, not itineraries, is what actually sours group trips.

The system that works, in four lines:

1. One payer per venue. Don't fight the register. Rotate loosely if it feels fairer.
2. Log it before you stand up. Amount, who paid, who shares. Fifteen seconds, while the memory is fresh.
3. Never settle mid-trip. Repaying in cash all week just creates four separate coin mountains.
4. Settle once, at the end. Everything nets down to two or three transfers.

Full guide: the group trip money playbook → · What 12 days costs for four friends →

13Before you fly home

Three ways money quietly dies at the end of a Japan trip. All three take five minutes to prevent.

1. Coins. Exchange counters outside Japan generally refuse them, so whatever's in your pocket is a souvenir. Dump handfuls into convenience store self-checkout trays as you go; on the last day, Pocket Change kiosks at major airports convert leftover yen into digital money (roughly a 1–2% spread), or use an airport donation box.
2. IC card balance. Tourist cards expire and the balance isn't refunded. Spend it down on your way to the airport.
3. Tax refund. From November 1, 2026, the money you're owed is claimed at the airport before check-in. Leave time and keep the goods accessible.

One thing you don't need to plan for: the international tourist tax, which rose from ¥1,000 to ¥3,000 for departures from July 1, 2026. It's collected as part of your ticket price, not at the airport counter.

Full guide: what to do with leftover yen →

14When something goes wrong

15What things cost

Rough 2026 figures to calibrate your budget. Treat them as typical ranges, not quotes — prices vary by city and season.

A note on visitor pricing

Since 2025 a small but growing number of attractions and restaurants have introduced separate pricing for overseas visitors, charging more than the resident rate. It remains a minority practice, the government is reviewing how it should work, and the amounts involved are usually modest — but it's worth recognizing the two-tier price board for what it is rather than assuming an error. Residents are typically asked for ID to get the lower rate.

Separately, the international tourist tax rose from ¥1,000 to ¥3,000 for departures from July 1, 2026. It's collected inside your airfare, so there's nothing to pay at the airport.

—All guides

Each section above has a full article behind it.