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After living in Japan for a number of years, and after having had a number of employers, I found myself with a lot of bank accounts. It was silly. I only ever use two of them on a day to day basis, four of them were lying abandoned. Potential security risks. Fodder for identity hijackers.
So I decided to do something about it. That is close them.
The Japanese banking system (well, the retail banking system) gets a pretty bad rap, especially from overseas. But to be fair, I really don’t know why. While they admittedly pay negligible interest, they don’t charge you money to give them your money. (Western banks; take note!) You don’t have to go to extreme lengths to open an account either (again, US/European banks… take note!) And once you’ve opened it, it’s there for ever. R opened an account in 1992 (?) and it’s still there. 500 yen patiently waiting. What’s more, J-Banks offer smart ATMs that really are automatic tellers. They do everything. Once you’ve opened your account (which involves talking to a pesky human) you can be safe in the knowledge that you’ll never need to talk to one again. Everything is automated.
And if you do decide that you need the human touch, the banks are there. Admittedly, they’re only open 6 hours a day, but nonetheless, they are there for you. And there’s none of the humiliation and frustration of banking in the UK or Australia. You tell the nice lady at the door what you want, she’ll give you a number and you sit down on a comfy couch with a selection of magazines and a TV (no comment). And you relax. Then they call you. You do what you had to do. You don’t shout through a bulletproof glass partition. You have a nice civilized conversation with a charming, young lady (no, they really are all charming young ladies) face to face. And then you go home.
Despite all this, I decided to slim down and close three of my accounts.
And now I feel like I have just lost 10 kg, everything is so much lighter!
In doing all this banking though, I discovered one thing. The banking industry is starting to wake up and modernise. A much more “bespoke” banking experience is being offered by some of the banks. And even a couple of young upstart banks have become so well established that they now eclipse the older dinosaur banks in terms of assets, and blow them away in terms of services. I actually opened an account with one of these younger banks. Their services and conditions seemed to good to be true.
Which, now that I think about it, is a bit of a worry!