Tsukuba-Dooba-Doo

I think its about high time to break away from the usual "we went here, we saw those, I embarrassed myself by saying this, Katie looked good doing that, ect, ect."  Don't you? (pause for head nod...) Good!

Today I'm going to shed some American light on the Japanese banking system.  It may not sound like a rip-roaring thrill ride full of death-defying stunts and fecal matter, but I dare you to be uninterested.  The first Japanese bank opened in the year... just kidding, I won't go into all of that.  If you really want to know about the history of Japanese banks go here.  I'm going to start from when Matt and I opened our accounts at Joyo Bank.


Oh ya, It's a Japanese Bank
Chihiro (AIST's babysitter for us), Matt, and I arrived at the Joyo Bank building just before they opened the doors for the day.  In true 'Japanese-people-are-super-respectful-of-each-other' fashion, the very second that the clock hit 9:00, the security doors rolled up and there were three nicely dressed women bowing and smiling as they greeted us.  That was a good start.  However, we quickly realized Chihiro would have to do almost everything because:

1. Our names had to be in Katakana (one of the three Japanese character sets).  My name, Seth Ryan Walker, translates to "Sesu Raian Uoka" or "セス　ライアン　ウオーカー."
2. Our signatures had to fit into a quarter inch circle.  Rather than having hand written signatures, everyone carries a personalized signature stamp around with them to endorse documents.  We didn't/don't have these so we had to sign microscopically small.
   
3. Other information such as address and place of employment was written in a combination of all three character sets (Kanji, Hiragana, and Katakana...shesh...)  It does make since though.  It's not like the Bank of America would let someone from Saudi Arabia sign in Arabic.  

The rest of the experience was pretty standard. We exchanged all of our money except one of my $1 bills.  It was too wrinkled :(  I received an ATM card and a 'passbook.'  The ATM card can only be used at ATMs to deposit/withdraw money.  Passbooks are similar to checkbooks in that they keep track of your transactions and account balances.  The awesome thing is that you slide your passbook into the ATM and the machine prints everything on your book for you.  No thinking involved.

While more businesses are starting to have credit card machines, I would say 90% of transactions are in cash only.  In fact, even when we make reservations with things like hotels, its based on the honor system.  You aren't financially tied to that reservation in any way.  This partially negates the need for a debit card and, possibly by Japanese logic, online banking.  Here is where things get less awesome for me.


Big Problem in Little Japan
Joyo bank doesn't have online banking. I repeat: Joyo bank does not have online banking!  This is a foreign concept to me since my American bank, USAA, is almost strictly online.  The English section of Joyo's website has little more than annual reports.  The Japanese portion of their website has loan information, financial advice, corporate assistance, investor relations, and careers...but you can't access your account with them.  Ok, ok, before you go accusing me of being a spoiled tech snob or something consider this: I have lived in Japan for 6 months and have not come up with a reasonable way to transfer funds between here and the U.S. at all. This is a big problem when you consider this conundrum:


See the problem?  We've figured out a solution to this particular situation, but only because my bosses are very kind and willing to bend over backwards for Matt and me.  

What is the deal with ATM operating hours!?
With fear of sounding like Jerry Seinfeld, "I mean, come on, what is the deal with Japanese ATM operating hours!?"  I would be as bold as to say that ATMs are the lifeblood of most Japanese nationals.  They are everywhere and you would think they would be open 24 hours a day.  Bank offices are operated by humans, thus there are reasonable operating hours.  Those people probably have children to go home to.  The problem is that ATMs are usually only open from about 8am-6pm also!  I don't think that at 6 o' clock ATMs put on their hats, grab their leather briefcases, and go home to their little vending machine children (although its fun to imagine). 


If you can find an ATM that is open after the regular operating hours, you get charged an extra fee.  You also get charged fees for weekend withdraws.  This means you best run to the ATM after work and pull out all of the money you need for the weekend...or you'll be sorry.     

Let me step off of my soapbox though, because there is a silver lining.  For example, the simplicity of using cash all of the time has grown on me.  It is much easier to live on a budget this way.  Also, marrying cash-only to strict-ATM-hours begets planning.  This system all but forces Katie and I to plan our meals and weekend spending more.  Being that we are both pretty type-A, the extra planning isn't terribly difficult for us.  I'm very glad I have a Japanese bank account because life would be much more difficult without it.  Plus, AIST set us up with direct deposit so I'm not complaining there.

So there you have it, a little glimpse into Eastern banking, Joyo style.   

-Seth