ATMs in Japan

Before I left for Japan, I thought it would be difficult to withdraw cash in Japan, because my guidebook said that international ATMs were only in large cities frequented by tourists. As I would not be staying in a large city, this would be rather inconvenient.

About a week into my stay, I had planned to make a withdrawal at an international ATM in Kyoto when we took a day trip there. Before we left, however, Tomomi made a withdrawal at a Post Office ATM. While standing there looking at the ATM, I noticed that it had some of the same ATM network symbols as my ATM card. So, after her transaction, I decided to give it a whirl and see if it would work. Lo and behold, it did! Not only that, the ATMs have an English menu, too!

Since post offices are of course in every town and city, you can imagine that the convenience factor for tourists just increased about a thousandfold. Upon my return, I did a little web searching, and found out more details confirming my suspicions that the entire post office ATM network is now accessible to non-Japanese ATM cards with the proper symbols. Click here to find out more.