Postal Savings Accounts

This is sort of a follow-up to my previous post about ATMs in Japan. In that post, I explained the international capabilities of Japan Post ATMs. While this is certainly a boon to travelers, using the post office to do your banking is also convenient for foreign residents of Japan. Even if you already have a bank account at a Japanese bank, getting a postal account is advantageous, too. Why? How about approximately 24,000 locations? Think about it. Every town and city has at least one post office, but not even the biggest banks have branches everywhere.

For more information, check out the Japan Postal Savings Home Page in English. You can find out about the different account types (most people probably sign up for the Ordinary Savings), what paperwork is needed to get an account, and hours for ATMs, etc. Maybe other countries have a postal banking system like this too, so maybe it's not a big surprise, but for me, it's definitely a welcome addition to a post office system's capabilities. I wonder if America would ever do the same.

In case you're wondering, the characters above are the mascots for the postal savings system, Yucho. I don't know if they're tanuki or squirrels.

If anyone has helpful information on using the post office for banking, please add it in the comments!