How Japan Makes You Forget
What Money Even Means

I remember my first trip to Japan, about twenty years ago now. I had almost no real sense of prices — too absorbed in the daily overwhelm of a country I was only just discovering. The yen being inherently “cheaper” than the euro on paper does something strange to your brain. And some things really are cheaper. It's easy to lose track entirely.

Ramen, soba, teishoku — the fast, honest lunch spots on every street corner at midday. They quietly replace the baguette sandwich we grew up with in France, and they do it better. A full meal — rice, miso soup, a main dish, tea, a small side — can cost barely ¥1,000. That's six or seven euros. An onigiri from the konbini, ¥150, is enough to silence a small hunger for under a euro. At those prices, you stop doing the mental math. And that's exactly when the trouble starts.

Spend an afternoon in the shops of Akihabara, or wandering the open-air stalls of Ueno market, and you'll feel it — that particular frenzy of novelty and souvenir-hunting where budget stops existing as a concept. Everything is a little cheaper than home, everything is new, and the yen numbers on the price tags stop meaning anything concrete. You're not really “spending money” anymore. You're just… acquiring.

I'm not going to pretend I have the discipline to fix that impulse — knowing where to actually direct that compulsive urge to empty your savings account is a whole different article. But a little structure and organisation genuinely helps optimise both your budget and your suitcase space on the way home.

What Actually Changes in November 2026

Speaking of which — the tax-free shopping system is being reformed for purchases made from November 1, 2026. Here's what actually happens, not the simplified version you'll hear at the register.

You'll pay the full tax-inclusive price at the till, the same as any resident. To get that tax back, you then need to complete the refund procedure yourself before you leave Japan — and you need to still have the goods with you when you do it. If a physical check of your purchases is requested, it has to happen before you check in your luggage, not after. The refund itself is paid out by the store or by its designated refund operator once your customs validation has gone through — it is not customs handing you cash directly.

One genuine improvement: the special sealed bags currently required for consumables (food, drinks, cosmetics) are being dropped. The trade-off is that anything you've actually eaten, drunk or used while in Japan no longer qualifies for a refund once consumed — and everything you do claim a refund on still has to leave the country with you.

• From Nov 1, 2026: pay the full tax-inclusive price in-store
• Complete the refund procedure — with your goods still on you — before leaving Japan
• Physical checks, if requested, happen before baggage check-in
• Refund is issued by the store or its refund operator after customs validation, not by customs itself
• No more sealed bags for consumables — but anything consumed in Japan won't qualify
• All refunded items must leave Japan with you

Full official rules: Japan Tourism Agency / MLIT — tax-free shopping reform →

We've watched the Don Quijote and Daiso checkout lines for years — this change was overdue. As for where to actually direct that Akihabara-fuelled compulsion to spend — that's a conversation for the shop, and for the next article.