The sages teach us that bearing the wrath of your father is easy but seeing him afraid is pain defined. These days my dad is resigned to the role of amazing cheerful (and generous) grandfather. He harbours neither spite nor anxiety about nothing in particular, so I need to reach deep into my memory to encounter examples of either emotion.
It’s easy to recall episodes when he flew off the handle, but I can recall only one time in my life when I saw fear in my father’s eyes. It was a light and airy Spring afternoon in 2002, and my extended family and I were out temple hopping in Kyoto. As we sauntered along the famed Pontocho alley, we came across the mildly touristy shabu-shabu establishment where we would have dinner that evening. As we gazed upon the gleaming copper pots and razor-sharp santouku knives therein, my father pulled me aside and asked, “They take Visa, right, AJ?”
I didn’t quite know what to say to him. My father was a seasoned veteran of microchip innovation and had been to Tokyo, Seoul and Taipei many times. Apparently, he had never pulled his wallet out once to host a meal for his manufacturing partners.
“Uh, no, dad,” I retorted. “They don’t take credit cards. Cash only.”
Our languid afternoon plans of sipping tea and soaking in onsen instantly transposed to a desperate attempt to find an ATM that would accept my fathers Cirrus-enabled card. It proved fruitless, and my father suffered the unprecedented shame of his progeny paying for dinner. Being a long-term resident of Japan, I duly stuffed wads of ichi-man c-notes into my duffle for the trip.
Skip forward nearly twenty years, and not much as changed. Here are some fun facts (and perceptions) about cash in Japan:
- Japan, home of robots and the Switch, conducts only 18% of retail payments digitally. Compare that with nearby China (60%) or even nearer by Sourth Korea (89%).
- The government has stated a goal to more than double it to 40% by 2030, but little detailed planning has been done. According to the Nomura Bank Research Institute the annualized cost of handling cash is increasingly worrying businesses. Nomura Research Institute estimates such costs exceed ¥1 trillion ($10B USD).
- A 2020 survey of consumers in Tokyo indicated that they believe that making cash payments in retail in environments is notably faster than digital payments. If you’ve ever scored a coffee at 7-11 in Japan (their brew is superior to Family Mart and Lawson Station), you would be amazed and how quickly and precisely change is made at the register.
- A similar survey indicated that Japanese consumers trust cash more than digital payments.
Recently my family and I made a land deal in Tokyo. The closing of the transaction (which was kind of small) was steeped in ceremony. We met the sellers, a phalanx of suit-clad bank representatives, and apostille-stamping ward officials in the glass lined boardroom of our local branch.
After nearly two hours of stamping and sealing codicils and deeds we were summoned to a special ATM-type machine on the top floor of the building. There I duly withdrew the largest pile of cash I had ever seen outside of a Martin Scorsese film. It was the tribute percentage of our equity payment, and under no circumstances could it be wired or e-transferred. Upon my return to the boardroom, the sellers counted every bill, licking their thumbs as if they were auditioning to be a Disney villain. With each note accounted for, the pile of cash was carefully placed inside a silk purse.
We received a knowing smile and a deep bow . . . and then the sellers vanished like Keyser Söze spiriting away in the black Jag.
The Tokyo Yenta 
Who knew?
LikeLike