TL;DR: Take your bucket of change to 7-11 (the type with the customer-facing touch-screen and coin/bill exchange). Request to charge one of your prepaid thigamabobs (Nanaco, Rakuten, Suica/Pasmo/etc.). Select 1000JPY as the charge amount. Pour your ridiculous amount of change into the coin slot. Even if it’s much more than 1000JPY, click OK at the end and everything OVER 1000JPY (your “change”) will be distributed to you in bills.
Obviously, there’s a physical limit to this, just based on the size of the hopper. I believe that I read elsewhere that it’s a total of 40 (?) coins. Not sure how well it scales, but I went 6000JPY over today, and got fresh, crisp 1K and 5K bills back.
36 comments
I just use the MUFG ATM machine. Yucho sucks now that they start charging a fee for coin deposits.
Just be courteous to people waiting behind you in the line, otherwise yes the combinis seems to have no issue with people dumping their loose coins into the machine. Probably saves them on fees to get coins from the bank.
I think I haven’t used cash in few months already.
Since quite a lot of places support barcode payments at least.
I use change instead of the ETC. I just dump fist fulls of change into the machine and it spits out any overage. I paid a forty dollar highway fee that way.
I tried this at the supermarket once and the machine jammed and they told me off.
This more like an Unethical Life Pro Tip.
Just use the ATM like everyone else.
I don’t carry coins anymore, i have some notes in my wallet in case it’s a ramen shop or something, otherwise I pay with card.
Be very careful with those machines to not put in way too much at once. They will lock up and cause loads of problems for people. But generally a good idea! Really really really pay attention to the amount.
Also, search Amazon for coin holders. You can get this pretty flat thing that lets you organize coins. After having that with me my constant coin collection routinely empties out to zero just from natural spending.
To combine these ideas: have a coin organizer. Every time you go to the ATM put in some coins. Maybe if you have 5 10-yen coins you’ll get back a 50. But really really really really avoid putting in more than like 10 or 20 coins at a time. Just be consistent.
Or alternatively, get a coin purse/wallet. Use your coins.
Japan needs to ditch the 1 yen coin already.
My friend would do this, putting handfuls of coins into the machines. However, one day they discovered the limit (apparently 30 coins) and basically broke the machine. Be careful out there.
I usually just pay things in coins if I have a lot of them in my wallet. It’s a satisfying feeling when for example you have 1221 yen, and you give 5221 yen, just to get bills.
But if I can I try to just use Suica/LinePay/etc to avoid having coins.
Or you could, I don’t know, maybe actually use your coins when you buy things.
I dump them onto my Icoca card. The one yen get dumped into the konbini machine.
what is wrong with you people.
why do you always have to use ichi man en satsu?
I literally have a 4 liter coffee can full of one yen coins that I’m either gonna carry around for life or melt down into a ball then stuff in a sock to hit people with
Sounds like someone needs to practice:
https://wendal.itch.io/japanese-money-simulator
Lmfao “foldin’ money” is my new word of the day.
How can you all physically have more than 15 coins in your purse?
– 4 1円 coins
– 1 5円 coin
– 4 10円 coins
– 1 50円 coin
– 4 100円 coins
– 1 500円 coin
Subtraction is taught at age 7. If you get extras, you’re losing at life 😢
I just stopped shopping at places that don’t have any form of electronic payment. 🤷♂️
If I’m unsure, like there’s no obvious sign stating the types of payments accepted, I’ll check with staff first before shopping/eating, and if not, I very politely and apologetically say “ah that’s too bad, I don’t use cash”, and leave. I use Apple Wallet for as much as I can like for cabs, trains, buses etc.
I literally never carry coins or even any paper cash anymore, most of the time I only need to have my phone on me, and carry a tiny thin wallet that just has my Driver’s License, ID, NHI card and a single physical credit card in it.
For dire emergencies in case of earthquake and needing water, I have a single 1000 note folded and tucked into the back flap of it. Has been there untouched for years lol.
It’s so nice to be completely cashless. Have been considering changing my phone case to one with a couple of card slots so I literally need nothing but my phone when I go out, but haven’t found one I like yet as they’re all a bit too bulky for my taste.
Cashless all the way all day 😉
You can also do this at train stations at the ic card recharge machines!
I pay my water bill at 7-11 in change every month. The only limit I hit was when the clerk told me to stop after putting 7000￥ in (not single yen coins obviously). Felt pretty good to get 5000 back
You don’t even need to request to charge anything, just hit pay by cash, dump your coins in and get cash back. I do this every chance I get with whatever is in my wallet, and occasionally will bring a large cup of coins to my local 7-11. When I do this the staff never care, and have even taken off the top plate of the machine for me to make loading easier, so I don’t get why people on this thread have such an issue with doing this and so strongly advise to go to an ATM. Just don’t do it if you are going to hold up a line behind you.
I have a (small) box of change (mostly 1 and 5 yen coins).
Is it normal to donate to the donation box they have ?
I’m just curious how people accumulate so many coins? I use barcode payments probably 90% of the time unless it’s a smaller bar/restaurant that’s cash only. I feel like this is the kind of foreigner problem where if you explained it to a Japanese person they’d be super confused
My partner had a giant jar of coins that he had been filling for years rather than spending. He told me I could have the money if I could find somewhere that would accept it.
I carried the whole thing to a post office (where I have an account) and asked them if I could deposit it. They brought me to the back and used their automatic counter to count all the coins, and then asked me to hand count them just in case.
There was literally more than 20,000 yen there, almost entirely in 1, 5 and 10 yen coins. It was pretty insane.
They have machines on every corner that can take your change and provide hydration.
You don’t even need to charge to do this. Convenience stores and supermarkets and even train ticket machines are able to be used.
Buy a drink for like 150 yen and just dump all your coins into the machine. Train ticket machines cut off at the price of the ticket, but super markets and convenience stores don’t.
I do something similar, I just dump piles of change into the 7-11 register when I’m buying something and it refunds me the overage in 1000s 😂
People having coins can always ask around when buying stuff if the shop would be interested to do some exchange. Pretty sure places like bakeries and such could use it …
(Of course a full bag will hardly be a OK …)
…. huh? Why not just… you know, pay with it on any super market/konbini that has machines like that?
I’ve been doing this for months at my local Sunny, but last week they had a new sticker and you’re now limited to 20 coins max.
Still works at 7-11 for now though
You can also use vending machine to convert smaller coins into bigger one. For example, when buying a 120 yen soda, if you insert 100 yen and seven 10-yen coins, the machine will return one 50 coin.
Why do some of ya’ll hoard coins? Some people with coins that accumulate to 何十万円 and others that have them scattered around your house, how does that even happen? If it’s a piggy bank, i can understand that but if not…
Imagine being so unorganized that you wait until you have 6000 yen sitting around, and going to the front of the line in a convenience store and just dumping it into a machine and making everyone wait…
If you have more than 999 yen in coins at any time you’re doing it wrong