You’ve been in Japan too long when, on a visit home, it takes you three tries to write a check. It’s funny but true. Japan is a very cash-based society, and there are no such things as using personal checks to pay for goods. On payday, employees at many Japanese companies in Japan get a fat envelope of 10,000 yen notes as their monthly salary, which would be unthinkable in the U.S. A couple of years ago we bought some land in order to expand the J-List facilities, and I remember going to the owner’s house to pay them for the land in cash, which was certainly an interesting experience. As a result of this lack of personal checks, foreigners who live in Japan for a long time completely forget how to write them and have to re-learn it every time they go home. When you need to pay for something in Japan, you usually do a direct transfer to their bank account, called furikomi in Japanese. It’s inconvenient and the bank fees are high (around $6 to send $200 for some hard drives I bought recently), but that’s the system that’s used most commonly in Japan.
Elections in Japan vs The US! How Does Japan View American Politics?
Have you been following the big election? Not the US election that happens tomorrow. I'm talking about the Japanese General...