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Japan

Cash is No Longer King in Japan as Use of Coins Drops Sharply (ft.com) 100

Posted by msmash from the how-about-that dept.
The number of coins circulating in Japan has fallen by an unprecedented amount, suggesting the nation's households are coming to the end of their long love affair with the piggy bank. From a report: The national stock of coins rose steadily since 1970, but has fallen sharply on a year-on-year basis for 18 straight months, according to Bank of Japan data. The turnround has been sparked by a combination of the Covid pandemic, banking fees, inflation and the rise of cashless payment technology.

The popularity of cashless payments -- which some have linked with the idea that coins were perceived as "dirty" and a vector for Covid -- accelerated sharply in 2022. Cashless transactions accounted for 36 per cent of all consumer payments, compared with 15 per cent a decade earlier. Analysts said the public's shift away from coins may also signal a wider change in Japanese attitudes towards saving. The sharpest drop has been in circulation of the largest denomination 500 Yen ($3.5) coin. This is the most common coin given to children to keep in their piggy banks, a tradition that seeks to establish solid patterns of saving and deferred gratification at an early age.
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Cash is No Longer King in Japan as Use of Coins Drops Sharply More

Cash is No Longer King in Japan as Use of Coins Drops Sharply

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  • What I wonder about is what are people going to do with those giant coin stashes when the government says 'whoops we no longer honor coins, we will accept them at 1/100th of face value'

    • Re: (Score:1, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Coward

      *Sees article about a foreign country*

      American: Let see how I can twist the discussion into about America and bash the US government and throw in a bit of conspiracy theory, even though the story has nothing to do with US. USA USA USA

    • Except that's not what's happening here. The coins are still valid legal tender, it's just that people don't care to use them.

      The US used to mint $500 bills. If you happen to have a $500 bill, you can still use spend it at face value... provided you can find someone to take it because they've been out of circulation for so long virtually nobody will accept it as genuine. (Also they're so rare they are worth way more than face value so you'd be a fool to try spending one like that)

      So what are people going to

      • Spending (or otherwise disposing of) stashes of coins isn't as easy as one might think. We're dealing with this situation right now (albeit in America) - one of my wife's parents, who recently passed away, was a coin hoarder. The local bank claims they have no way to count them (I thought they had machines for that), and either my wife or her sister are expected to roll up hundreds of dollars in assorted pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters (plus the occasional fifty-cent piece).

        I know there's always Coins

        • Spending (or otherwise disposing of) stashes of coins isn't as easy as one might think. We're dealing with this situation right now (albeit in America) - one of my wife's parents, who recently passed away, was a coin hoarder. The local bank claims they have no way to count them (I thought they had machines for that), and either my wife or her sister are expected to roll up hundreds of dollars in assorted pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters (plus the occasional fifty-cent piece).

          That bank is feeding you a

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by teg ( 97890 )

            There's not a bank on the face of the earth that doesn't have bill and coin counters.

            Wouldn't bet on it. In Norway, most banks are cash free. I haven't touched cash here for years. There are some cash handling companies that service stores - and the stores do have automated cash handling, including coins, for those few who still use it, I doubt those stores would let come with a big bag of coins though.

            • Wouldn't bet on it. In Norway, most banks are cash free.

              Ok, I did say on "face of the earth", but I was really talking primarily about the US, where I believe the original poster I was replying to lives along with myself.

        • Lots of banks have gotten rid of coin counters. It's not worth maintaining them. Some of them have put in coin kiosks in the lobby which makes them someone else's problem, but you then wind up having to pay a percentage in most or many cases. The answer is to spend your change, problem solved.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by PCM2 ( 4486 )

            Bank of America closed down the nearest branch to me. There are BofA ATMs even nearer, but they're not attached to an actual bank. I honestly would have to go to the internet to find the nearest place I can walk into a bank branch, and even then, it wouldn't shock me at all if they didn't have a coin-counting machine. And this is one of the biggest banks in America, in a major city.

            • Blood of Apartheid is for suckers. Get an account with a CU. Not even all of them are good, but the good ones are great.

        • Keep it in a box, take out a few dollars of coins every day, use them for tips or to buy coffee in the morning.

      • So what are people going to do with those huge coin stashes?

        Playing Pachinko ofc: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]

    • Should release new 1, 5, and 10 Dollar Coins. Maybe even go to 25 and 50 ones too.

      The reason coins aren't worth using, a cup of coffee is 12-20 coins ($.25). Coins are for quick convenient low cost and impulsive buys. Parking in my small town is $2.00 / hr. Who is carrying 8 quarters ? So they installed kiosks that take Credit Cards, and that has gone as well as a lead brick flies.

      But what do I know? (probably not a lot)

      • You're paying $3-5 for a cup of coffee from a store? Lah-de-dah ... I pay about $1.50-$2.50 here in NYC ... just avoid Charbucks and go to the local convenience store aka bodega.

    • whoops we no longer honor coins, we will accept them at 1/100th of face value

      Baring a fundamental change in law that won't happen. There's a singular institution that is bound to accepting the face value of the coin, that is the government.

    • What I wonder about is what are people going to do with those giant coin stashes when the government says 'whoops we no longer honor coins, we will accept them at 1/100th of face value'

      The way government will rid of coins in the future is the same way they get rid of old coins now, by buying them at face value. Once a coin gets to a central bank, it's sent to be destroyed. The only difference is it no longer mints new ones to replace the old. You are free to keep and spend the old coins. As the last minting wears out due to age, they will effectively be gone, like wheat pennies and steel pennies - still in circulation, but not in significant amounts. The government still pays face value f

    • The melt value pennies dimes and quarters is far more than 1/100th of their face value. More like 20%-60%.
      The melt value of a nickel is more than a nickel.

    • I'm genuinely surprised that the US seems to still use cash.

      In the UK we are fighting to keep it, with many shops actually refusing it, which may actually be against the law.

      Where I work we had some guys from the US visit. They went to the vending machine in the canteen to grab a snack. On that day I was standing there annoyed as the card reader on the vending machine had reset itself thus was not accepting payments. I was unable to grab anything. Along comes the american, who also find the card reader

  • No One Uses Coins Anymore? (Score:4, Informative)

    by Tempest_2084 ( 605915 ) on Tuesday July 11, 2023 @02:17PM (#63677655)
    I used exact change in a purchase the other day and I had a high school aged kid as me if it was correct. He told me that they don't really teach them how to count change anymore in school because no one uses coins anymore. I think I aged 20 years on the spot.
    • *ask. Should have checked for typos before submitting...

    • Exact change can be a tough one now. Even worse is change that gives you a single larger coin in return. Example:

      Total = 3.67
      Give = 3.77 (three quarters, two pennies)
      Return = .10 (one dime)

      What actually happened when I attempted this:
      Total = 3.67
      Give = 3.77 (three quarters, two pennies)
      Cashier looks at me as if I'd grown three heads. "You don't need these." Hands back two pennies while shaking his head and laughing like I'm the biggest dumbass he's ever met.
      Finishes transaction and returns 8 cents (ni

      • I gave up on rounding up to the next single coin years ago. My experience was exactly the same as yours. They simply couldn't comprehend what I was trying to do even when I explained it to them. That was at least 15-20 years ago so I can't imagine what would happen now.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by Arethan ( 223197 )

          15-20 years ago, many places had change maker machines tied into the point of sale register.
          Oh fuck, I'm old.

          • Fellow old-timer, checking in. You ever been in one of those places with the auto-changer, and it the auto-changer goes down? You've never seen so many confused people. At one point at a Burger King I actually had the kid hand me the drawer and tell me to take what seemed right. If I weren't more honest. . .

          • They aren't very uncommon even now ... I think I saw one at a grocery store last week? In NYC, where cash acceptance is (thankfully) mandatory.

      • That's why every country but the US has coins of 1, 2, 5, 10, 20, 50. This avoids any such confusion.

        • We have those in bills.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by teg ( 97890 )

          That's why every country but the US has coins of 1, 2, 5, 10, 20, 50. This avoids any such confusion.

          Norway has 1, 5, 10, and 20 NOK as coins. 50 and up are bills, and we got rid of the cent-equivalent years ago. We don't use much cash anymore, though - it's overwhelmingly electronic. Cash is on the way out, like checks that disappeared more than 30 years ago,

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by jbengt ( 874751 )
        I've had similar experiences. It costs $9.07. I hand over a ten dollar bill and 7 cents. Many of the younger cashiers can't make sense of it. Most of the older cashiers hand me a dollar and are glad they don't have to make 97 cents change (and so am I)

        • > It costs $9.07

          > I hand over a ten dollar bill

          > glad they don't have to make 97 cents change

          • At 97 cents change you'd be getting 4 cents too many, showing that using coins is one possible get rich scheme...

      • I once had an odd amount of coins, also paying a similar amount like you.
        I piled the coins up in a way like this:
        10x 10 cents -> 1Euro
        2x 50cents -> 1Euro
        5x 20cents -> 1Euro
        2x 20cents + 10cent -> 50 cents.
        5cent + 2cent -> 7 cents

        Total 3.57

        When I handed the money in my open palm, I counted: 1, 2, 3 Euro and 52cents.

        The cashier dropped it on the table and counted it coin wise, without any systematic, aka randomly 2cens and 10 cents and then 50 or 20 or 10 again ... took him quite a while.

    • Re:No One Uses Coins Anymore? (Score:4, Interesting)

      by 93 Escort Wagon ( 326346 ) on Tuesday July 11, 2023 @02:36PM (#63677705)

      Back before NFC and even debit cards was a thing, I'd typically pay for stuff and include the amount of coins necessary to minimize the amount of change I'd get back. If a bill was $11.78, I'd either include the 78 cents (if I had it) or at least add three pennies so I'd just get a quarter back rather than two dimes and two pennies. Either way, that practice regularly seemed to flummox cashiers of all ages even 30-40 years ago.

      • It can be tricky sometimes I guess, but didn't we all do problems like this in school? I seem to remember doing exercises about it when we covered making change back in elementary school.

        • It can be tricky sometimes I guess, but didn't we all do problems like this in school? I seem to remember doing exercises about it when we covered making change back in elementary school.

          I remember it too - although that was many decades ago. But we did quite a number of different "life skills" activities in elementary school and junior high.

        • I was a cashier in the 1990's, and was reasonably good at math. However, I HATED cashiering. It was so mind-numbingly boring and simplistic that it killed brain cells almost as fast as alcohol. I remember two incidents in particular:

          1) A customer (about twenty years older than I) I had just finished serving said he had a math puzzle for me. It was about halfway through my shift, and the cashiering monotony had already damn near put me to sleep -- even after much caffeine. He asked me what 3.14 divided by 3.

          • Interesting anecdotes. They fit my own theories about mental filtering and perceptual overload. In a job like that the primary focus is to avoid going crazy from boredom... the brain can go into a fugue-like state, entertaining itself. I imagine the second priority is simply watching customers, threat assessment, attractiveness, stuff like that. So dredging up the higher-brain functions to do non-routine math is kind of a non-starter.

            At another level, the customer is in a much higher state of arousal t

      • The cashier already keeps the different coins sorted out in separate bins in their registers, making it much faster for the cashier to make change than for you to make change out of a handful of random coins in your pocket. Meanwhile, everyone behind you in line as well as the cashier has to wait.

        Even if you put no value on anyone else's time, you are slowing YOURSELF down.

    • Re: (Score:2, Funny)

      by cayenne8 ( 626475 )

      I used exact change in a purchase the other day and I had a high school aged kid as me if it was correct. He told me that they don't really teach them how to count change anymore in school because no one uses coins anymore. I think I aged 20 years on the spot.

      But, I'll bet said kid could tell you how many genders there were that day...and what pronouns go with them....

      You know...important stuff.

    • He told me that they don't really teach them how to count change anymore in school

      That's because he didn't pay attention in school. One of the biggest critiques of American mathematics is that Core Maths was dumbed down to produce people better at counting change than actually teaching proper maths.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Ogive17 ( 691899 )
      I'm not so sure it wasn't taught, just that it wasn't picked up by that specific high school student.

      My son learned it and he's in elementary school.

      I believe you just ran into an uninterested high schooler

    • I used exact change in a purchase the other day and I had a high school aged kid as me if it was correct. He told me that they don't really teach them how to count change anymore in school because no one uses coins anymore. I think I aged 20 years on the spot.

      You know, maybe there are a lot less fake victims out there than I thought. Apparently you can create an actual victim of circumstance with little more than pocket change.

      And 911 operators wonder why they know about so many internet outages.

  • Political motivations and pro-CBDC propaganda. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Seven Spirals ( 4924941 ) on Tuesday July 11, 2023 @02:32PM (#63677697)
    This isn't all about convenience or numismatics: it's mostly about power. Usage of coins and bills is likely to decline with so many digital payment options and credit card use. However, that's not why pro-authoritarian media assholes try pushing these articles. It's because they love the idea of greater government controls around personal finance and hate the idea of financial freedom (spend your money where you want), and especially hate freedom of speech and expression. These types of articles would be on the back page of some coin collecting rag, normally, but now the partisans push them to become headlines in order to normalize the practice of removing financial freedom and privacy. They want us to see "the death of cash" as inevitable. After watching the insufferable Trudeau dis-em-bank folks for protesting, all the other governments want in on the action, too. Those protesters get on the news, you see. They cannot have that.
    • The explosion of point-of-sale tip begging encouraged me to start carrying cash again. The number of hoops I have to jump through to avoid paying a tip to the guy handing me the pizza box over a restaurant counter made the effort of keeping currency seem minor.

    • You have this idea completely backwards. It's the government, aka rich people, that won't ever allow cash to disappear. They are the ones with accounts in Switzerland, gold stashed, bitcoins encrypted and all that kind of things. It's they that won't never allow that all transactions are registered, not people like us. Think about it.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      In Japan they use stored value cards. The card stores how much money is on it, not using a central database.

      The cards have serial numbers, although so do bank notes. People share them, anyone can buy them with no checks or ID.

      The cards themselves store the last 20 transactions, although only totals and merchant names, not itemized receipts.

    • You're absolutely right. The nominal comedy "Trading Places" (1983) explores this notion. The wealthy protagonist has his whole life cancelled as a morbid experiment / bet among the financial elites. His credit cards and bank accounts are frozen, his rented house is repossessed, etc.

      Cash is a way to not only accumulate wealth but to spend it in a private way. The notion that individual data can be 'anonymized' is the biggest lie out there, pushed by the same big tech & media shills. Given two sets

    • It's because they love the idea of greater government controls around personal finance and hate the idea of financial freedom (spend your money where you want), and especially hate freedom of speech and expression.

      I wonder how human psychology makes that an apparent force throughout the ages. Why do "you"* feel threatened by me thinking or doing whatever I want? I have a lot of partial answers, but I am nowhere near the root of the issue.

      *Royal you, not personal you

      • Simple. Thoughts lead to action. If they can control what you think, they believe (correctly) that they can strongly influence and/or control how you act.

  • We need government to step in here and mandate that coins be used. Businesses must ensure every odd numbered transaction of the day must be carried out in coins on odd numbered months on premises that have an even numbered street address. When the street address is an odd number, then it must do so on even number months. Since this may cause an undue burden on the disabled, they are exempt on prime number days. Senior citizens are exempt for the whole year if the current year is not relatively prime to thei

    • Including Venmo. A guy shows up and collects the cash and couriers it to the recipient in a little treasure chest.

  • America hasn't use coins like the Japanese have for a long time. We have had bills for $1, $5, $10, and $20 "forever". Paper has ruled above $1 here for decades.

    Japan, not so much. Less than 1000 Yen, coins rule. At least they have, for a LONG time.

    The recent changes have been the increase in digital money. And the increase in prices above what coins exist. They're going through it later than we did, is all this is.

  • > The number of coins circulating in Japan has fallen by an unprecedented amount, suggesting the nation's households are coming to the end of their long love affair with the piggy bank.

    I don't think so, merely a puff-piece to soften us up for a centralized digital currency. That can be cut off any-time you cross our rulers. Similar to what Justin Trudeau did to those who supported the trucker protests.

    • That can be cut off any-time you cross our rulers.

      That has always been possible, even with a 100% cash-based economy. All that changes is how it's done. One of my first jobs cashiering had a printed list of people we were not allowed to sell to. Some of those people were mandated by our local government because they were wanted criminals, and some of them were mandated by the business owner. The company's revenues were probably 85% cash and 15% credit.

      If a government wants to cut you out of the economy, it can do it regardless of the type of currency.

  • Front pocket wallets are too slim to put coins in easily, and metal objects don't get along well with phone screens., so the natural modern combination for pockets is phone and wallet in one, keys and change in the other. (Back pockets, if you travel around the world frequently, are only for donations to the local economy) . This usually requires pulling out my keys to get the change out. Bills are in the wallet in the other pocket. I frequently just use bills and get more coins (later tossed in a container

    • I only have my wallet and my phone in the same pocket by accident.
      Never intentionally ... my trousers usually have minimum 4 pockets, why would I leave 3 empty and put the phone together with anything else?

      • I just don't care. Carry coins. Carry metal keys (no silly little smart locks for me). If my phone gets scratched, I only paid $100 for a cheap pre-paid Android. Why worry? Worrying is for Apple snobs.

        • I have an Android in one pocket and an Apple in the other one.
          I'm worried about both.

          Your point? Apple users are Snobs? Sorry, half the stuff on my Android does not work.

          "The last time you joined this WiFi, it did not have an internet connection - if you really want to join it again: tab here" - and that makes you wonder why a week or longer Singnal and Skype and Telegram and eMail has no message ... absolutely not obvious from interacting with the Phone. It shows the wifi network at max signal strength on

          • SIM memory card? SIM just identifies which network the phone should use; it's really not formattable and doesn't have much storage. Do you mean an SD card? My phone (recent Moto) allows me to format one.

            • SD card obviously.
              Yes, mine allows me to format one, too.

              Perhaps you want to read what I wrote.

              The way to format it - or to find the option to format it - is completely obscure.

              • And yet, an iPhone has no SD card slot, so formatting one is much, much harder on an iPhone than an Android.

                Settings, Storage, SD Card, Settings, Format is difficult to find? It's pretty much exactly where I thought it would be, and I've never formatted an SD card on my Android.

                It's also available from the file browser by just tapping SD Card, Settings, Format.

                I've no idea where else you expected it to be, but these are about as obvious as you'd want it. It's not often used and catastrophic if done by mista

                • Settings, Storage, SD Card, Settings, Format is difficult to find?
                  It is not there.
                  Why do I know that?

                  Oh, because it obviously is the second place a normal person would look at.

                  Why did you comment if you did not even read my original post? I explained there how damn dumb fuck complicated it was to format it - I don't do it again.

                  And I'm sorry you can't see the red exclamation point in the WiFi logo at the top of the home screen, but the phone was telling you that you were connected to a Wi-Fi network but the

                  • First of all, the option to format the SD you're stating isn't there, is exactly there, In both places. Secondly, it gave you a notification with the option to fix the problem and you decided to ignore the notification. I don't know what else the phone is supposed to do except tell you what the problem is and try to get you to use the convenient button to fix the problem contained in the notification. The idiocy is entirely yours. The problem was entirely your response. Sorry you think the device should hav

              • SD card obviously.

                Perhaps you want to read what I wrote.

                Okay, let's do that:

                Oh, you want to format an SIM memory card on Android? Strictly speaking: you can't. You have to be lucky to the the pop up of the notification "unreadable SIM card detected". Yes for funk sake, I know it is unreadbale, I want to format it!!! But I can't. Because there is no damn format option in the whole system. Not in Settings, not in the File Manager, no where!

                So, after googleing you get told: hey! there is an "unreadable SIM card detected" notification. Yeah! Dumbass! I know that!!

                Well, you have to tab on that notification to finally be able to format your SIM card. HOW THE FUCK RETARDED IS THAT?"

                You wrote "SIM card" three times and "SIM memory card" once when you meant "SD card".

                You wrote "You have to be lucky to the the pop up of the notification"

                You also wrote "Oh, you want to format an SIM memory card on Android? Strictly speaking: you can't." then, several sentences later, you wrote "you have to tab on that notification to finally be able to format your SIM card." As you said, "HOW THE FUCK RETARDED IS THAT?

                When reading what you wrote makes you sound like a complete idiot, e

                • A SD card looks like a SIM.
                  Did not know you are so arsine that you do not grasm I mean an SD card.

                  So: on damn phone you can not simply format it.

                  I have to put it in, wait for the notification, tab on the notification, wait for the tab to be executed and open the "do you want to format it" question.

                  Yeah: a notification, like the first 3 lines of an SMS, or the first 3 lines on an WhatsApp message: is supposed to be tabbed on, to be able to format an SD?

                  Seriously? You think that is how a UI should work, inste

                  • I understood your original rant perfectly, as well as all the follow ups where you make the problem crystal clear that the problem is entirely you.

                    The system popped up a notification that the SD card was unformatted and would have immediately given you the option to format it, but you refused to click on it because for some bizarre reason, you thought a system notification was identical to a WhatsApp message. Despite knowing the notification was about the SD card, you continued to ignore it while you repeat

      • phone and wallet in one, keys and change in the other. (Back pockets, if you travel around the world frequently, are only for donations to the local economy) .

        why would I leave 3 empty and put the phone together with anything else?

        The answer is reading comprehension and math.

        • My phone is not in my back pocket, it might break when sitting. Or fall out when sitting and shuffling around.
          Not sure about your math comment. There was no math involved in your previous post nor in this one ...

          My wallet is too thick to be pulled out of my back pocket. On the other hand since a long time I switched two a very small wallet, slightly bigger than a credit card, which can hold the typical bills I use, too. Whichis in my front pocket. And my coins are in an medieval leather sack :P

          • Since you somehow took 4 objects (phone, wallet, keys, and coins) going in 4 pockets, and came up with 3 empty pockets required to put your phone with anything else, so yes, this was a math problem and you got the answer wrong.

            And you still haven't read the bold part of my comments, so reading comprehension fail as well. I'll state it much more simply in the hopes you might understand - I don't keep anything in my back pockets as a matter of habit so I don't make that mistake when I'm jet lagged in an unfam

    • I just keep a big wallet (I'm a cashie) in my front pocket ... I really don't care if I have a bulge or how I look.
  • Of those innocent looking hands taking that dirty, dirty money.
  • I definitely notice that cashless options are everywhere now. From visa to app based payments options on the phone. Compared to 10 yrs ago, Japan definitely has improved options. With that said the rural areas with old folks seems to still prefer cash.

  • No neferious scams to allow merchants to refuse cash payments like in the EU.

  • >There probably should the discontinuation of the one cent penny. Still could price things by the penny but round the total to the nearest nickel. Over a hundred years ago there was a half penny but never a tenth of a penny and that never stopped a retailer in somewhat recent years from charging down to the tenth of a penny for cotter pins and rounding the total to the nearest penny. It now should be done to the nickel. Gas prices are another example that round as they charge to the tenth of a cent. $9 a
  • I recently returned from three and half weeks in Japan. Big cities and small. Cash and coins may have been less used, assuming the data presented here is correct. But on the ground I could not tell. In the USA I rarely carry cash, let alone coins. In Japan, aside from hotels, cash and coins was all I used. It was less expensive to exchange a bunch of money that the credit card fees for international transactions. And cash seemed to be what almost everyone else was using too. I wish we had $5 coins here. Cas

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