I live in Tokyo and don't think it's very different from the US. The ATMs have amazing transfer features, like looking up a friend's account to send him money. I pay for a lot of things, like rent, through cashless transfers at an ATM. I pay cash at the convenience store for my utilities, which I paid by check in the US.

It's well known that many older Japanese people keep huge sums of cash savings in their houses. There are occasionally almost comical stories in the newspaper about houses getting broken into and the thieves walking out with obscene amounts of money.

I'm a huge fan of cash in general. I do value seeing my money and hate the idea of all my transactions being logged. I totally agree with the premise of the article, I've been doing this for years.