New residents in Japan might find themselves looking at bank accounts. Many bank accounts in Japan do not come with debit cards by-default, as one might be familiar with from other countries, like the United States.

Japan calls the default bank card a “cash card” (キャッシュカード) instead. A cash card is simply a card that works at domestic ATMs for withdrawing cash. Many new residents end up finding this out by getting a Japan Post bank account (Yucho Direct+), and being issued a cash card.

A cash card, by-default, cannot be used to buy things online, nor can it be used directly at a store to pay for a product. In the case of Japan Post Bank, you need to apply separately for a debit card, and it is actually relatively difficult to do this without having a visa longer than 1 year.

Both Sony Bank and SMBC Prestia offer cash cards with Visa Debit functionality by-default, side stepping this issue. However, Sony Bank's newer terms say that if you don't use the Visa Debit part of the card for 2 years, they'll issue a cash card as your replacement card when your current one expires.