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Comment by xedarius | Hacker News Reader

A friend of mine who lives in Tokyo told me that in Japan it's near impossible to transfer money from one bank to another. He told me the way Japanese people transfer money between banks was to draw the cash out in one and pay it in to another. I'm prepared to be corrected if this tale isn't true.

However, with this in mind, it seems like quite a leap from a non-electronic intra-bank system to Bitcoin. On the other hand, it may be the poor banking system that's created this.

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A friend of mine who lives in Tokyo told me that in Japan it's near impossible to transfer money from one bank to another

Go to any of your bank's ATMs with your ATM card and/or passbook. Select 振込. Input amount. You will be asked the bank, bank branch, and 7 digit account number of the person you are sending it to. You will then be (typically) shown a screen which shows you the fee (100 to about 500 yen depending on bank and size of transaction) and lets you adjust your telephone number or name if required for the convenience of the firm receiving your payment. Hit OK. If done within banking hours, the payment is effectively instantaneous. If you cannot follow these instructions, you can ask a teller to assist.

If you're doing the transfers between your own accounts and they're at different institutions then one will occasionally see people withdraw to cash and then immediately redeposit in a second account, to save the ~300 yen or whatever.

In related news, Japan is a major Western country and banks do not communicate via couriers and smoke signals, contrary to impressions your friend may have.

> Japan is a major Western country

Um...

In my experience (10 years living in Japan) it's actually extremely easy to do bank transfers, so easy that actually many people use bank transfer to pay for online purchases. It does cost a bit though (from ~100 to ~600 Yens depending on the amount, time of day, and size of banks involved), and the sender has to pay that amount, not the receiver. That makes it an even bigger incentive for sellers to accept this way of payment.

I wouldn't say near impossible but I think it's definitely much more inconvenient than in other countries. Just the other day I had to move some money between my bank accounts and did exactly that with the ATMs. Because online banking here is a atrocious and I didn't want to deal with any transfer fees.

Well as you suspected that is not true. Maybe your friend doesn't understand his bank interface? If anything the Japanese use bank transfer(furikomi) more than in the west because credit cards are less used.

Remember "the West" includes the Nordic countries, Germany, and other parts of Europe where credit cards are less common and bank transfers are free. At least in Scandinavia, the app-based bank transfer methods are widely used to pay for purchases or to repay friends.

I don't know about transfer between banks, but I do remember that when I left Japan in 2007 I withdrew all my money in cash, walked to the post office, and sent it to my Swedish bank. That saved me several days and a whole lot of transfer fees.

False. Its easy to do bank transfers but you have to pay fees even for domestic transfers.

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