I lived in Japan for about a year and a half, and virtually the entire country is cash only. They also have a huge saving s rate. I think I never handled money better than when it was all in cash during my stay in Japan - so the article here makes a very good point. When you physically see the money you can really appreciate what you've got and the value of it.
I live in Tokyo and don't think it's very different from the US. The ATMs have amazing transfer features, like looking up a friend's account to send him money. I pay for a lot of things, like rent, through cashless transfers at an ATM. I pay cash at the convenience store for my utilities, which I paid by check in the US.
It's well known that many older Japanese people keep huge sums of cash savings in their houses. There are occasionally almost comical stories in the newspaper about houses getting broken into and the thieves walking out with obscene amounts of money.
I'm a huge fan of cash in general. I do value seeing my money and hate the idea of all my transactions being logged. I totally agree with the premise of the article, I've been doing this for years.
I worked here for extended periods over the past few years and came to love the lifestyle and people. I'm far from a Japanophile, but I had to try living here.
Although I agree with you, I think Japan's culture has more to do with their savings rate than the "cash money" effect.
It's interesting actually that it's probably not that Japanese are conservative about their savings, but that we North Americans are woefully inept with ours!
I would disagree, but with a remarkably small dataset: my experience. Working in cash only completely changes how you think about money. When you buy something expensive, you have to get all that cash together - it definitely makes one pause before doing it unlike a simple swipe of a credit card.
I started out working for an Architecture firm in downtown Osaka. I stayed there for 3 months during which time I found out the firm was run by the Yakuza (Japanese Mafia) and quite a strange outfit. I went to work for another firm in Kobe where I stayed until leaving. I had to fake my return to America between jobs as the Yakuza people were tracking me. I flew home, answered the phone when they called to confirm I actually left the country, and then flew back to Japan. Yikes!
My best memories were from Nara and Kyoto - exploring the imperial buildings and gardens. I learned Japanese while I was there and could answer the phone convincingly after 6 months (people actually didn't realize I wasn't Japanese on the phone which was a bit of a problem.) Once I learned the language and understood the culture better, it was very disillusioning. Back then (this is in 1991, and I've heard there's been alot of change since then) people would never tell you what they really meant - they would always talk in a circle around their answer. They would say yes when meaning no, etc. They would gain their esteem from the group they belonged to rather than their own accomplishments, so discussions were like talking office politics. At the first firm, the staff would spend more than 50% of their day schmoozing with their superiors to advance politically, then finally start working in the afternoon and ending up working late and still not finish what a normal person could do during a normal day. Advancement had no relation to ability - it was strictly politics. Sigh.
Whenever I have cash I have a slightly panicky feeling that it is gradually falling in value (which, of course, it is) and that buying something is the only way of preventing this process. So, I don't keep cash.
