Japan’s new banknotes cause trouble for small businesses
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 5 ก.พ. 2025
- Subscribe to our TH-cam channel for free here:
sc.mp/subscrib...
More on this: sc.mp/2cipf
Japan began circulating its first new banknotes in 20 years on July 3, 2024. The nation’s existing bills will remain in use, but businesses that accept cash have been told to upgrade their payment machines. The change is not expected to have a major impact on most big operators such as ATMs providers and train-ticket vendors, but the high cost of new machines has been a headache for many small businesses.
Support us:
subscribe.scmp...
Follow us on:
Website: www.scmp.com
Facebook: / scmp
Twitter: / scmpnews
Instagram: / scmpnews
Linkedin: / south-china-morning-post
#scmp #Asia #Japan
To be honest, Japan announced the change almost two years in advance. Most countries will announce such changes only months before implementation.
I dont know where you live but usually new banknotes are presented to the press like 1 year before. even the french 0 euro souvenir bill have been announced 1 year before
India announced it 4 hours earlier. It was a shitshow for months.
which countries are you talking about?
@@lkszmgrzk5881India announced suddenly 😅
India announces 12 hours before
Imagine all those vending machines..., lol
Still use coin
@@NotUwU-_- They all accept cash, at the very least 1000 JPY bills.
it won't be a problem. you can use other cash and these problem will eventually updated on every part of the country.
@@NotUwU-_- they will still need to update them regardless.
@@aileeno6063 haha plenty of machines in japan don't accept the "new" 500 yen coins that were introduced in 2021.
I finally realized why casinos use chips instead of cold hard cash (apart from the really obvious reason)
If there is a new currency that'll be over hundreds of machines being updated
One of the many reasons. Chips are also easier and more reliable to count at a table. A dealer doesn't have to pick up the chips to count them, unlike cash where they would because you can't trust a pile of cash like that.
@@MessyPointedBlob Chips make you forget it's money.
All the cash equivalent token/chip also take you away from the actual cost of the games.
@@Oebelysk its not a new currency per say, but just new bills
Biggest reason is the same as video game transactions currencies.
Betting 100$ might be a big pill to swallow, but 5 blue chips or 100 tokens? That doesn't equate well in lizard brain so it's just fine!
Its understandable,even their bus have this coin changing machine that will accept any amount you pay and still give you the exact change. Upgrading all of them to accept the new bill will be pretty much grandiose effort
対応するのは来年度中とのことでしばらくはかかりそうです しかしお店などの券売機は既に交換されてるところも多くあります
At our vending machine we have digital payment scanner at every vending machine. Just scan and pay the amount. That's it. And every restaurant, shop, there is only scanner. Scan and pay. Now We only pay via phone. I don't know when i used paper currency..
@@ramansingh5282 yep, the coin machine exist along with the Icoca/pasmo card payment. Japan is still cash heavy country like it or not, when going home I have plenty of spare Yen coin I forgot to spent during my visit
@@ramansingh5282 in most if not all countries using your card/phone takes away a bit from the income of the store. In japan it might be a higher rate than in many other countries (if you compare costs such as internet, phone, banking cards, etc)
They announced it two years early apparently not enough time
Bill changes are so annoying, our coutry went through them way too often and using machines was a total headache as well as determining if the one you were holding was fake since the rules gwt too confusing as consequence of the too frequent changes
My country changes their bill every view year, we have gotten used to it and the methods to identify the real ones are very practical with just your eyes, touch, and detail
@@ArariaKAgelessTravellerFancy telling me which country you are from? I'm Curious actually.
@@ArariaKAgelessTraveller
Indonesia? I guess.
@@hazaka97
Indonesia? I guess.
If you think that's annoying, come to Hong Kong. Where every note except for the 10hkd one has 3 variants. And all these notes change EVERY year. So since 2000 we have had 66 changes on every note and 22 for the 10 hkd one. And in total 352 changes across every note.
Yes, yes. As it is usual in Japan, people don't wanna update. Reminds me of when Microsoft finished their updates for XP, some municipalities opted for disconnecting computers from the Internet because they didn't want to transition to the newer Windows.
Lol, did you hear about the floppy disks? they've JUST phased it out.
@@alexander1989x Naw, loads of computers still use floppies.
They need not disconnect WinXP. There were updates until 2019.
Some don’t want to change as switching currency is big for Japan being a well known vending machine means they need to upgrade it,there are pros and cons like Microsoft trying to force its user to windows 11
BY THE WAY. Win XP is still the best even as of now.
meanwhile in australia... the government owned machines couldnt even handle new notes when they rolled out
i remember that. was over hype wasn't a major issue. australia over 20 years ago was already cashless with our eftpos and tap and go... australia introduced that
New 500 円 coin from 3 years ago still create problem all over Japan, even in big stations.
That’s more understandable because it’s just one coin that’s not very common. Updating the machine when the customer will almost always pay with a 100円 coin makes it not a priority.
そうそうそう。あの500円玉は新宿駅ですら使えないよ😂
Only the part that reads the bills need to be hot swappable , changing the whole machine is ridiculous
For a country that innovates, Japan surely is reluctant to change.
innovated what?
@@caniz80 vending machines. you can buy condoms used by male pornstars or underwear worn by japanese schoolgirls
@@caniz80 better go search it on Google.
You only think that way because you have this false perception that Japan is innovative and futuristic
Japan has always been stubborn about clinging to the status quo
Japanese businesses loathe changes, you'd know if you worked for one before
@@fearmetoo-le8dw sadly, there're no vending machines selling bat soup in Japan.
All they need to update is the bill acceptor, not the whole machine.
What if the machine is out of production? Now, you must find and pay a specialist to fabricate new components for the old machine and hope it works. If it doesn't, there is no customer service available.
Also needs a place to collect the new set of currency, and the machine to give change using a mix of old and new currency.
Mrsh, This should have been seen far in advance, and software developed to handle this, so no new machine parts would be needed at all. Sadly, this stuck-in-the-past mentality is strong in Japan.
@@venessankurumeh1549you can connect every bill acceptor to every machine.. so that wouldn’t be a problem
@@joshuatan942Why do you need a place to collect the new currency? Unless the currency is different dimensions, then all you need is to properly identify the new stuff. It can be stored with the old.
As someone who prefers cash over digital currency, I also think business owners prefer cash, so they are gonna have to figure out the machines.
I remember my family using these ticket machines at a bathhouse in Kyoto. We had no idea how to use the manual ticket machine that took cash only.
All of those machines could have been upgraded to nfc payment years ago anyways, so now they have the chance to upgrade both at once.
People are afraid of change too. I saw a video on some small European country that recently ditched their paper chip looking coins because the older generations refused to use them. It was supposed to be lightweight compared to coins but more durable than paper money.
Yeah. I never thought the effect of new bills on those vending machine. 😅
Hindsight
They should force the update so quickly give people time to do it
No need for the banknote update, Japan. You just need to dump us bonds often😂
Can't do that, they are a vasal state of US. Poor japan being used to keep inflation in US under control.
Can't do that. US vasal states only exist to help US trive. Vasal state economy is not important.
Can't do that unfortunately, vasal states of US don't have the freedom to stabilize their economy.
現金主義の高齢者の割合を考えると必要なものでした。
アメリカは日本の国内経済とはあまり関係してないですよ。政治は別ですが…🫣
@@legendnbg97 well, that is a fact 😂
I'm really surprised that the hardware for accepting credit cards would be MORE expensive than the cash hardware upgrade. I wonder if they have some kind of high processing fees or something on stuff like that.
The new banknotes look like a mix of ancient and modern, similar to Japan itself.
when a bank release new bank note but the truth is they print money to cover a lost economy
for country which have so many vending machine, its def nightmarish to adjust both old and new notes ASAP
It's just unbelievable that after so many years, these have not incorporated card payment in all those machines. I don't think I ever saw a single ramen shop machine that takes card
Japan is mostly cash based for some reason.
To prevent carding crime, maybe.
lol using card not free you know card payments costs more than hiring full time worker for business which is a lot for small businesses meaning they got less money so hire less people so customer suffers due to slower customer service
From $37K to $45K that's the minimum range of profit return every week I thinks it's not a bad one for me, now I have enough to pay bills and take care of my family.
Excuse me for real?,how is that
possible I have struggling
financially, how was that possible?
Thanks to Elizabeth Marie Hawley.
YES!!! That's exactly her name (Elizabeth Maria Hawley) so many people have recommended highly about her and am just starting with her 😊 from Brisbane Australia🇦🇺
I have heard a lot of wonderful things about Elizabeth Maria Hawley on the news but didn't believe it until now. I'm definitely trying her out
Same here, with my current portfolio made from my investments with my personal financial advisor (Elizabeth Maria Hawley) I totally agree with you
Why the ticket machines don't just accept credit card or mobile payment?
I cant believe they never accounted for that
Feels like this part of the effect of new notes is intentional, just to give an extra incentive to digitalise or risk some potentially missed businesses for half a year or more.
Didn't know Japan has its own monopoly hat dude.
So they issued huge amounts of cash to the public and after that they say use less cash...
logic
I wouldn't be surprised if the Japanese government helps out or allows incentives for small businesses.
They should have set up a grant program a year ahead to update payment machines for those who apply before rolling out. That will give local businessed some relieve and a year to pay for say 50% of update cost. Here in america local towns have set amount of grants to spend on local businesses and infurstructors, i think japan have the same am not sure.
I don't believe in grants for this, but I wouldn't object to government backed loans with a 2 or 3 year repayment period.
One of the reasons governments change notes and coins regularly is to give a little boost to the economy. Think about sales and income tax they get from this.
I'm not saying that the government is going to get rich, but if it adds 10s of millions to the budget for a year or two, it's a nice bonus.
A country with earthquakes,real money is better than electronic payments
The new design issue on the currency is really boom market for Automatic Seller Machine/ Vending Machine Provider because they will receive a lot of upgrade order and even order for new machine.
who's actually complaining that they can't use a bill worth £50 in a venting machine?
then scrap the ticket machine if upgrading is too much, just have people order over counter anyways
Does that mean that Japanese have been using the exact same bills for 20 years? I mean, no reprint and such? If so, Japanese people are truly neat & meticulous in taking care of everything.
Now just fix the banking system, so that people don't actually have to use cash for daily transactions due to exorbitant fees on card payments, and we'll be chilling.
Why are the bills so large? Like it takes two people to hold one bill up?! Of course this would cause trouble.
whats stopping them from using qr codes to show the menu and then ordering .
Japan recently ordered the discontinued use of floppy disks to finally put them into obsolescence. This new currency injection sounds like a lobbied cash grab from the ticket machine makers that forced obsolescence for many business owners, yet they themselves weren’t even prepared to produce enough replacements…
Say it ain't so Joe!!! No more floppys?!? 😥
The money that exists remains in circulation so idk why anyone feels pressure to “Upgrade” to the newly design currency. At the end of the day ¥10,000 is ¥10,000.
Bills, and even coins, wear out and are replaced all the time with new ones. Eventually all, or almost all, of the bills will be replaced with new ones. The only bills that won't be replaced are the proverbial money under the mattress money that is never spent.
What does it mean by "sending out".. Obviously they aren't giving it away for free. So that means they are just exchanging it for old notes, which should have no impact on the economy since the total amount remains the same.
Imagine when they discover they can use credit cards. It will blow their minds!
It's like a new hundred dollar bill, yes 10k yen bill is normal and is not a sign of inflation in japan
Maybe it's a wakeup call that if they were accepting cards instead all they would need is a software update from time to time.
How is it simply not an update to the software? Surely there is a hacky way around this that'd cost nothing but an open source piece of software.
0:32 this is alarming ⚠️ 🚨
*_"Even as progress continues towards a cashless society"_*
I'm more interested about how they've used war-time personality to represented in new notes, just shows how Japan don't want to change from pre-1945.
A chashless society is such an idiotic idea.
Y'know...This just made me realise we're also facing the same challenge in the UK today, too. Our last banknote update was in 2016-2020 (New polymer £5, £10 & £20 notes) but because we're a Sovereign nation and have the Head of State on ours, we now have two versions of each note design in circulation - One featuring HLM Elizabeth II, and one featuring HM Charles III. 👑
Unless machines ignore the Sovereign completely (Which might not be OK under British principles, even for technological reasons! 😉) they have to be re-programmed to accept the Charles notes alongside the Elizabeth ones (Both are equally valid/legitimate) and with many I've spoken to saying the new Charles notes are rather hard to recognise as legitimate currency, this must be causing all sorts of headaches! 💷🤯💷
What does it mean the portraits appear to be 3D? They look the same as any portrait I’ve seen on any banknote. They look like a 2D drawing of a 3D person.
How much you want to bet a bunch of Japan politicians invested heavily in meal ticket vending machine companies before releasing the new bills that require new ticket machines. 😒
Just one engineering student needs to build a new to old changing machine thats cheaper than the new ticket machine
I have the previous yen and I'm at my home country now. Will the previous yen still be accepted by my local banks when I wanna change to my home country currency I wonder....
you can trade your money at bank for new currency
Small businesses just mad the public didn’t pay all the costs for the updates to their POS machines, because somehow the act of accepting legal tender isn’t a cost of doing business 🤷🏻💴
Japanese banknotes are always beautiful. Still i love the previous issue. But the recent issue is not that bad though.
I would rather see bank notes WITHOUT historical people. It's better to put monuments, ancient artifacts, animals, etc. Like Euros.
Why? I like it having people, seems more human.
Not all countries have been around for hundreds or thousands of years, with monuments.
@@joshuatan942 what?
@@joshuatan942 Japan certainly has many great monuments and historical temples and many animals
OoOo picky
Is time to intro cashless payment.. never thought Malaysia could be highest e-payment user per 1000 people
The music is loudly annoying.
business idea, offer existing businesses a change machine that can accept the new bills, charge the businesses a monthly fee to rent the machines
Imagine the notes had a little QR code on it the vendor could scan and it updated the block chain so the government knew which lawful vendor had it last and where it ended up 😂
cash use is rampant in Japan because they dont have to report the correct income for tax purposes
Nope. It's just Japan being Japan.
@@InbredCannibalNecropedophile Just ask the japanese. Tax officials literally raid your house looking for hidden money under the garden gnome or fake floors. Keeping cash outside of the banking system is crazy rampant in Japan
also very usefull for bribery and money laundery
That’s everywhere. Don’t have to declare tax with cash. All the pizzas and kebabs got expensive when we went over to card.
@@TheBooban Here in Australia you get a 'discount' if you pay landscapers/tradesman in cash 😂
"impossible to counterfeit" heard that one before. they'll be fake ones in a few months
The inconvenience is the point. Why replace the machine when you can buy digital card reader for cashless payment for $100
Iphones and Android phones can be modified to accept card payments. So no hands touching causing babies!
A country known for its robots but still largely using cash instead of digital currency.
This will work out fine for Japan! I hope their economy thrives from it!! I love Japan!
Its time they make it digital payment now
The yen is as bad as the peso used to be. They need to divide the yen by 1000 and dump the useless zeros.
Cash use is still very practical, but I'm surprised an advanced country like Japan has not adopted a widespread use of cashless payments in addition to cash. Also, the new bank notes are still made of paper, and not polymer? Really baffles me.
Cashless means pay fees to digital money provides. Although it small, the cost gonna add up.
Polymer is plastic. We had enough microplastic around
There is SUICA or PASMO, but their use is limited outside public transport. Some railways don't even accept them due to their limited coverage.
Their banks still use 1990s web coding design and faxs are still a widespread use there, expecting them to develop and implement cashless technology is impossible 😂
Geographically Japan is in an environmental disaster hotspot like floods, earthquakes, cyclones etc. In the case of those disasters, the internet connection will be down for several days. Cashless transactions will be a nightmare then.
the switch is huge but I’m sure everyone will get use to it in time . Japan is just a super fast pace country .
So fast paced they still heavily use fax machines
"Japan is a super fast pace country"
😂
Oh dear child, if you only knew
there should be a picture of the American President🗿
the old ones look way better
Why bother with new designs? Who is counterfeiting Japanese Yen? Just wait a few more years and let business slowly upgrade to system with cashless ability
Korean. I mean both north and south.
Dude, card payments have been around for decades. Japan has been one of the earliest adopters of payment cards. And yet, to this day, outside of major chains, you almost always have to pay in cash for products and services in local businesses. It's not going to be "a few more years", more like a few more decades.
@@NatiiixLPmy country India adopted digital payments in daily life after 2016 with the introduction of UPI . Japan should create something like that where with only mobile number you can transact your money to any account in whole country within few seconds without any charge. But my question is why Japan an innovative country and one of the most developed country back in 90s didn't created such thing until now
@@Êíøw57 You have no idea how many (old or just idiot) Japanese still insist back to paper work because of BCP and security concern.
Sometimes it takes a big change like this to push people to abandon old tech. Digital payment systems are a mature tech. Even iphones now can accept payment. It won't be a crisis that forces a government to backtrack.@@NatiiixLP
You just need to update the vending machine once in 20 years, I think it's not that a very big trouble. And vending machine owners don't have any choice though but to upgrade their machine.
that one japanese Monopoly dude with the hat
Imagine the size of the wallet to carry those notes from the beginning of the video!
Still way better than China 😂
I’m surprised Japan uses paper cash as much as they do, surely this kind of change would push more electronic payments methods instead
Because cash is king. Can’t’ stop you from buying, trading like digitial
I am completely against a cashless society. Only idiots want a cashless society.
It seems that Japan's introduction of new banknotes will inconvene "some" people other than Japanese people.
why so desperate ? i do not know LOL🤑🤑🤑
Always keep cash alive
At our vending machine we have digital payment scanner at every vending machine. Just scan and pay the amount. That's it. And every restaurant, shop, there is only scanner. Scan and pay. Now We only pay via phone. I don't know when i used paper currency..
Well, as far as vending machines go, card payment is way better since you don't have to deal with stuff like broken bill acceptors, no change in the machine, vandalism due to the money, etc., but otherwise both card and cash should be options.
@BizznessBox yes they do lol, well some anyways
yes, cash is freedom. If there is digital money only, the goverments will use it against you. Yoa have adirrerent political opinion, all your payments will be blocked for a week. This will teach you and will "guide" you in the wanted direction.
@@thomasmuller9243 this won't happen in Germany, therefore be least of my concerns. The banks selling data would worry me more. Personally, I think freedom is being able to choose between cash and card like in Spain or Estonia.
Tell me this doesn't have the lustre of the Scheckinotes?
I have this many banknotes at my house. True story.
Just use contactless payments and pay the commission why physical cash
Can't be traced, can't be taken away, not paying for those commissions, always works, even offline, even without electricity. Visa/Mastercard are pro censorship.
Government making life more difficult for the masses is a sign of government failure
I don't understand why this problem exists.
Mexico is a country with a similar amount of people that is also a VERY cash-based society. The Bank of Mexico, however, updates the design of banknotes every 5 years or so, and yearly introduces new commemorative coins for practically anything (the 100th anniversary of XYZ, the works of ABC author, etc.) without this problem with machines showing up.
Sure, some businesses have to wait in line to be upgraded, but nowhere near to the scale that Japan is facing according to this video. Didn't the central bank give time to manufacturers of scanners and readers to adjust before the new money is circulated? Or better yet, why don't the central bank and manufacturers ally to make the scanners that recognize only certain safety features that can remain the same in all versions of a banknote or coin regardless of design upgrades?
Ticketing machines, where you feed in cash to order specific menu items, in lieu of a cashier or waiter, is the unique thing about Japan's situation. Video says it costs $3,700 on average for a new ticket machine (not sure how much it is to upgrade existing), an expense small business owners are saddled with through no fault of their own.
The Japanese government should have wait a few more years, give more time to update their vending machines, ATM and other machines that takes cash.
From what I heard, their government just revealed the new banknotes out of the blue, without informing everyone months before.
The japanese govt announced the introduction of new banknotes 4,5 years ago. You heard if wrong
Wrong
@@ootts456 Were the machines capable of accepting both the existing and the new banknotes available 4.5 years ago? I don't think so. The announcement is pointless until you can actually get the machines. And Covid would have undoubtedly greatly complicated dealing with stuff like that in 2020-2022.
So simple... just give cash vouchers to low-income retailers / subsidy on new machine upgrades..
Those vending machines also had headache
This is a side note. Government offers the subsidy to buy new machines and some machines can be fixed by only software upgrade.
I wonder why an technologically advanced country such as Japan still insists on cash rather than electronical payment. Maybe because Japan has a lot of boomers (born between 1945~ late 1950's) who took part in the liberal student movements during the late 1960's. Those people, now being a senior in their 60's and 70's, seem to have a negative view about the government controlling the monetary flow through digital currency (such as the case in China) and may prefer the usage of cash. These seniors are
important voters for the local politicians, so this could be a reason why Japan still prefers the old-school method 🙄.
A couple years back they introduced new 500 yen coins and businesses made the same complaint. By today almost all machines accept the new coins. It's not a big deal. It's hardly even news, honestly.
Also, I use cash for 99.9% of my transactions in Japan. Using methods like digital payment and credit card, it is simply too easy to let your expenditures get ahead of you. It's too easy to spend. Dwindling cash reserves lets you more accurately feel how much you are actually spending. I will continue to use cash even if the government tries to push digitalization.
There must be a time to exchange before the replacement right, still have much time 👌🏻
Japan still uses A LOT of cash….
To avoid tax 😂
Reject a cashless society, it's clearly a means for those in power to gain greater control.
I don't get the obession with going to a cashless society - cash is so handy.
Governments like digital-only because it makes it easier for them to tax. And sometimes steal the Bank savings from someone due to a new law or patriotic need.
So as a consumer you shouldn't have 100% of your savings as a digital account. Having a fraction as physical cash and some other goods like a house, car, gold and silver is wise.
in some ways, Japan is not living in the future and stuck in the past
Don't ever allow a completely cashless society
We have QR payment in a lot of vending machines here. They just restock the items and don't to worry about the cash.
I didn't know that Japan was so slow about these things. May be it's time to go digital instead of upgrading the cash receivers.
Japanese is smart for using cash only no need to FOMO to be cashless society
We don’t need fancy looking bills… fix the economy 😭