Cash truly is king here

I got some money out from the ATM yesterday. I was surprised to find the recently released new 10,000 yen bills. I took a photo of them as a memoir, and promptly folded them so they could fit in my money clip.

I felt like a criminal.

In all likelihood one of the first people ever to touch those notes and straight away I do something to ruin their pristine appearance.

But that’s the thing (and it’s the same with US bank notes). The notes can easily be ruined like that.

New Zealand’s can’t. It’s almost impossible to rip New Zealand bank notes. In fact, I think it is impossible. New Zealand’s notes are made of polymer. They are largely indestructible, well besides purposely ruining them by burning them (I guess, I’ve never tried) or cutting them with scissors or something.

But people in New Zealand don’t use cash. Cash is a remnant of a bygone era. It’s gotten to the point where if you deal in cash, you’re probably dealing in something more sinister too.

On the flip side, although it has changed markedly in recent years, people in Japan can’t get enough of cash. I know of a few shops here who exclusively only deal with cash. I don’t think they’re doing anything sinister, maybe it’s a convenience thing? Or the fees involved with electronic payments cuts into their profits too much for their liking or something? Some of these were places that did in fact accept electronic payments in the past too, but stopped for some reason.

Either way, I was really hoping that with the update would come more robust notes. Yet Japanese cash remains as easy to ruin as it's ever been.

And I don’t see it changing anytime soon. I hope they don’t mind me ruining the new notes one by one.