Hi all, so I am preparing for japan, right now trying to find a wallet. I really like those rfid slim minimalist wallets which are just 1-4 cards + money clip, they fit in your pocket really well.
I am just not sure if they are suitable for japan in 2022? do people still only take cash in places? realistically what would I be carrying daily? a lot of yen notes or yen coins? foreign debit card + suica + travel card + konbini card or something? Is it possible to live fully cashless, like topping up suica somehow from my UK account without any charges?
What wallets do you guys carry? Any tips would be highly appreciated thanks.
28 comments
what kind of a question is this? don’t wallets function the same everywhere, especially if you are moving from your home city to another city?
Living here I have tried to slim down cards multiple time to no success. Here’s cards I carried daily:
1. Zairyu card (required by law)
2. Insurance card
3. Student card
4. Cash card
5. My home country ATM card
6. My university coop IC card.
7. My laboratory access card.
8. PiTaPa cards (for transportation in Kansai)
9. A few credit cards and point card.
So I gave up lol. My wallet is 1.5inch thick.
Japan like cards. Some might be available on phone but a lot still isn’t, so if you want slim wallets you probably need separate card wallet.
Going full cashless is still hard in Japan — you probably still want some cash on hand. And Japan bank note starts at 1000 yen (approx $10) and anything smaller is coins, so you would probably also need coin pouch.
>do people still only take cash in places?
Some places do, but most former cash only places will accept payment apps like Paypay, LinePay etc, many will also accept cards.
Places that still are cash only are usually small shops and restaurants, and very few supermarkets.
>realistically what would I be carrying daily? a lot of yen notes or yen coins?
You probably want at least a 5000 yen note on you. And if you use it, you’ll get some coins in change.
>foreign debit card + suica + travel card + konbini card or something?
Most of these work at most places, but not everywhere. Foreign cards can sometimes be rejected.
>Is it possible to live fully cashless, like topping up suica somehow from my UK account without any charges?
It’s possible, especially in a bigger city! But if you travel somewhere unknown, you better have a travel wallet, which can accommodate cash.
>What wallets do you guys carry?
A regular leather wallet, and a coin purse.
Too many cards..
I use my card or apps for more than 90% of my purchases, but definitely need cash every now and then. One of the supermarkets is cash only, and some parking lots and park entrance fees are cash only as well.
You only really need to carry 3 cards (residence card, health insurance card, and bank card) and some cash if you want to be minimal. I also carry my drivers license, 2 credit cards, and my My Number card. IC cards (Suica, Pasmo) can be put on your phone. Not sure what “travel card” or “konbini card” are. Convenience store point cards have apps for your phone.
Then, when I’m going somewhere that needs an additional card, like the grocery store or the dentist, I will add that just for the day.
For Japan, I personally always have a generic wallet with space for 4-6 cards, which has space for notes and a small pouch for coins.
I also have a cute little plush taiyaki fish pouch which attaches to my backpack shoulder strap, which I put all the inevitable excess coins in.
Obviously if you’re going to be working or doing more business related activities, I’d leave the pouch at home – But in general, you’ll probably want something for the coins you’ll end up with.
I have a standard long women’s wallet (Western made). I need to purge out point cards that I rarely use every so often to keep it from getting too thick. Japanese bills fit when folded in half. I honestly wish it had more card slots, though. Between health insurance, residence card, my number, drivers license, money cards, members cards I need to have / don’t have apps (Costco, gym), it’s a lot.
I also have a coin purse. It’s essential if you carry a purse.
My husband keeps coins in his pockets, which is annoying since it usually means I find coins all over the house. He has a standard mens billfold wallet, and Japanese bills stick out ever so slightly.
I have one of those slim wallets that only holds a few cards and a little cash. It really sucks for Japan. Between 3 US credit cards, my bank card, Zairyu card, national health card, drivers license, MyNumber card, Costco card, there is just not enough space to have a bit of cash as well. I am kinda looking for a new wallet, but it’s not a high priority as I’ve gotten by for now, my minimalist waller is just not ideal.
If you were very picky with what places you purchase goods, I guess you could go without cash, but it would be overly difficult. Daily I carry 20,000 to 30,000 yen on me mostly in paper bills with a couple hundred yen in coins in my pocket.
Not really sure how to answer this, other than to say that you should keep in mind the size of the bills in Japan, they’re taller than most bills from other countries I’ve used, so they stick out the top of my wallet I got in Colombia (COP are about the same size as USD, for reference)
As an example, here is my wallet contents:
1. Zairyu Card
1. Driver’s license
2. Health insurance card
3. Tram/Bus card (my city is not integrated into Suica or I’d use Apple Pay for this)
4. Bank cash card
5. 4 credit cards
6. 1 debit card
7. 6 bills of cash
Thinking about it, I could probably ditch 2 of the credit cards. 90% of my payments are done on phone/watch through Apple Pay or PayPay. I mainly use cash for parking, vending machines, and small bars/splitting the bill with friends.
I used a secrid wallet card slide dealing with a band that holds it all together, it’s all aluminum or something, I fold my bills in thirds and slip em in under the tin tray part – my wife bought it for me like 3 months before we left for Japan. It’s cool and holds 4-5 cards in the slider mechanism, the tray holds 10 bills folded individually plus a fortune
I found a cool tiny little coin pouch with a latch system that attached to my belt loop and it’s got a little pic of 桜島 on it which is rad.
Apple Pay handles my passmo so I don’t even need the physical card, still trying to figure out how to use it at konbinis though
There are slim wallets that will work. Generally each slot fits two or three cards. Many have a place you can slide folded bills.
At Most it’s like having a 2/3 scale travel deck of cards in your pocket. Usually less.
For daily commuting, you’ll almost exclusively use cards for everything.
You absolutely will encounter a lot of small change situations on your initial days of exploring.
There are discreet ways to do this, no need for a medieval coin purse. A little pocket pouch with a zipper is pretty common. Just enough for snacks and change from buying small trinkets.
You will need to carry cash so make sure you have a place for bills and also coins. Also make sure you can carry your residence card, health insurance card, train pass card, my number card, bank card, and the cards for any doctors offices you go to. My wallet is huge
Something I don’t see in the comments.. I always got bills from anywhere I’m at crips, clean, unfolded. I started to feel bad being the only person around that seemed to fold my bills and handing them over to whatever place it might be to pay. I thought I was being super annoying.
So I got a long style wallet that fit those bills. A tiny wallet just for coins might help you out as well as an alternative. If you put some 500 yen coins in there, that’s a lot of money! I got used to wearing a smaller type of messenger bag to contain that larger style wallet, the coin one, keys, passport, tissue.
I would wait until you’re in Japan to buy a wallet.
As people pointed out, you’ll likely need an assortment of cards, definitely some space for coins (as coins are “real money” here meaning I use them more often than I do in the US), and then there’s the cash. My American wallet never fit Japanese bills well, as they’re different sizes.
Come over with what you have now, get a feel for what’s needed after a week or two, buy yourself a wallet that’s geared towards the local market.
>like topping up suica somehow from my UK account without any charges?
Only if you have an iPhone (Apple Pay Suica supports top-up with almost any Apple Pay capable credit or debit card). If you buy a Japan-market Android that supports tap to pay, it’s only guaranteed with foreign AmEx and JCB cards.
I used the Topo Designs Micro size. I carry cash as I lived in rural Japan and worked good.
https://topodesigns.com/collections/work-bags/products/accessory-bags?variant=40692701855797
Get a billfold. Way classier than a big bulging wallet that makes you look like a goober and is large enough to carry all the cards and cash and coins you’ll need.
I carry this one: https://www.dillards.com/p/polo-ralph-lauren-pebbled-leather-narrow-wallet/505196357?googleShop=Y
Yeah you can’t put it in your pants but like… don’t carry a wallet in your pants. That’s for high schoolers. Use a goddamn billfold like an adult.
I am not in Japan yet, but I got this [Slimfold Coin Wallet](https://www.slimfoldwallet.com/products/coin-rfid-travel-wallet?variant=31097468715139) in anticipation of moving to Japan.
It is very slim but can hold very large notes (I think it should be able to hold a GBP50 size note with room to spare) and also has a magnetic coin pouch.
It claims that it can hold up to 10/12 cards. I am currently using 8 and should have no problem holding 10.
The material is surprisingly quite durable, so I am quite happy with it.
I have two small wallets now- one for cards and one for cash. Both of them are slightly-bigger-than-credit-card sized.
Card wallet is a Zepirion brand sliding wallet I got from amazon, holds 10 cards in total on which I’m using it for:
1. Zairyuu card
2. Japanese driving license
3. TIMES rent-a-car card (saved me countless times when I suddenly need a car)
4. Japanese credit card
5. SMBC ATM card
6. Home country ATM card
7. JP Post ATM card
8. IC card for a game I frequent in the arcades (I go to the arcades weekly lol)
9. Suica
10. (free space)
1-7 is contained in RFID safe compartment. As for the cash wallet, both bills (folded half) and coins go in there, and I tend to use coins whenever I can (e.g. I’d hand out 1,250 yen for a 750 yen transaction) so there’s never more than like a couple hundred yen worth of coins in there.
For barcode-type point cards like T-Point or Ponta, I scanned them with Google Pay so I don’t need to bring the physical cards.
Lots of really good places to eat/drink in Japan will not accept credit cards, especially outside major cities so if you are into food and going to interesting independent places I would always carry cash. So safe to carry cash in Japan anyway may as well carry a few notes at all times..
You must have a wallet made of the finest Kyoto material. To match your obi always.
I think Japan is the birthplace of the man purse. Cards, plus cash, plus coins, plus whatever else you have to carry. I got stuff in every pocket. I wear cargo pants for the extra pockets
I’m using [this wallet](https://www.mulberry.com/jp-en/shop/small-leather-goods/purses/medium-darley-wallet-black-small-classic-grain). I really like that it has a slot for transit cards on the back, so I can tap it at readers and don’t need a separate transit card holder. It also has a slot for coins, so I don’t have to fumble with another coin pouch when making payments.
If I was looking for a wallet with a slimmer form factor, I would probably pick the [LV Victorine](https://eu.louisvuitton.com/eng-e1/products/victorine-wallet-epi-014598#M62173) as it somehow still manages to fit a coin section and will fit into pockets easily.
For all the people talking about loose coins, look up “coin home”. Pretty awesome.
Context: I’ve been living in Tokyo for a little over 2 years, and have been for study abroad and internships in the past.
I’m quite picky about my wallets, as they have to fulfill the following criteria for my daily life:
* Ample card space
* Bill storage
* Coin pouch
* Key ring
* Roughly card-sized in length and width
* As slim as possible
After trying a few wallets out, the [Chums Surfshorts Wallet](https://chums.com/collections/wallets/products/surfshorts-wallet) is the best I’ve found. The downside of this wallet is that bills have to be folded into quarters to fit inside, but I use bills only about 15% of the time so it’s an acceptable compromise. It’s only about 1.5cm thick, which is impressive as I store about 8 cards in it.
I recently saw a Japanese model of the same wallet by Chums called [Recycle Key Coin Case](https://www.chums.jp/shop/g/gCH60-3148-N001-00/) which actually is tall enough for Japanese bills, so they only have to be folded in half. It’s even made of more robust materials, and feels overall more solid. Planning to get this for my next wallet.
As for what’s in my wallet:
1. Company access card
2. Zairyuu card
3. Insurance card
4. Cash card
5. A few coupons and cardstock point cards
6. American credit card (since the exchange rate is good right now)
7. Japanese credit card
8. T-point card (since the design is cute)
9. Aime arcade card
10. 5 bills
11. About a dozen coins
12. House key
All in a 10.5 x 6.5 x 1.5 cm package, small enough for the front pocket.
I touch cash maybe 2-3 times a month. Live in Tokyo so emoney is easy to get by on. I use Japanese and US credit cards, PayPay, PASMO etc. All are input on my phone but I carry the credit cards if needed. I have a 6 card metal rfid protected wallet.
https://www.momastore.jp/shop/g/g0497608098575/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=ssc&gclid=CjwKCAjw0a-SBhBkEiwApljU0sXzNiYUsQatg2L5j-yUAfeI4KwU7U8XGA1JPwjdbsRj4nzzxjkEwRoCu8kQAvD_BwE
Just use whatever wallet you currently have and change it out in Japan once you figure out what you think you will carry daily.
Personally, I have a leather wallet with integrated coin pouch, I alway try to use the coins first and anytime it gets too thick I start to remove point cards/member cards that I don’t regularly use.
Your wallet is fine. Whatever types you have had are fine. BTW, the most popular and super convenient payment method/system is called PAYPAY. It is widely used, and has a great reputation. Suica is great, too. You may want to think about that.