Gujo Guide
Last verified: 2026-07

Changing Money in Gujo: ATMs, Currency Exchange, and How Much Cash to Carry

If you’ve read our guide for first-time visitors, you already know the headline: Gujo runs on cash to a degree that surprises people coming from Tokyo or Osaka. This article is the follow-up question — okay, so where do I actually get that cash once I’m here?

The short answer: mostly, you don’t. You bring it with you. Here’s the honest picture.

The short version

Honest take: For practical purposes, there is nowhere in Gujo to change foreign banknotes into yen. The town has bank branches, but Japanese regional banks have largely moved currency exchange out of ordinary branches, and Juroku Bank — the main bank here — now points customers to dedicated exchange shops at JR Gifu Station and JR Takayama Station, or a home-delivery service. Neither helps a traveler standing in Gujo Hachiman with a wallet full of dollars or euros. Arrive with yen, or with a card you’ve confirmed works in Japanese ATMs.

Can you exchange foreign currency in Gujo? Honestly: assume no

Gujo Hachiman’s town center does have a branch of Juroku Bank (十六銀行 八幡支店, Hachiman-cho Shimadani), the largest regional bank in Gifu. But a branch existing and a branch changing your money are two different things in rural Japan.

Juroku Bank’s official information for individual customers lists exactly three ways to buy or sell foreign cash: a delivery service run through Travelex, a mail-in buyback service, and two dedicated exchange shops — one inside JR Gifu Station and one in front of JR Takayama Station. Ordinary branch counters, including the Hachiman branch, don’t appear anywhere in that list — which is consistent with what we’d expect for a small-town branch, though it’s not the same as a direct confirmation.

Update, 2026-07: re-checking Juroku’s own shop listings, the JR Gifu Station exchange shop appears to have been suspended since March 12, 2024, with no announced reopening — we’d treat Gifu as unavailable for now and confirm current status before relying on it. That leaves the Takayama Station shop as the only one of the two we can currently point to with any confidence.

Confirmed directly with the branch: the Hachiman branch does not handle foreign currency exchange at the counter, full stop. So this isn’t a “probably not, unconfirmed” situation anymore — do not build your travel plan around exchanging money at a bank counter in Gujo. It simply isn’t offered here.

If you’re coming from Takayama, note that the Juroku exchange shop in front of JR Takayama Station is a legitimate option before you travel here — but the Gifu Station one should not be relied on until we confirm it’s reopened.

ATMs in Gujo that accept foreign cards

This is the realistic way to get yen locally. Three networks in Japan reliably take overseas-issued cards: Seven Bank (in 7-Eleven stores), Japan Post Bank (in post offices), and Lawson Bank (in Lawson stores). All three have English menus; Seven Bank machines offer a dozen-plus languages.

Seven Bank — the widest card support, but honestly car-only in practice. The entire city of Gujo has exactly two Seven Bank ATMs. The one relevant to most visitors is inside the 7-Eleven near Gujo City Hospital (郡上市民病院前店, Hachiman-cho Shimadani 1490-1), listed as operating 24 hours. Correction from our earlier draft: we’d estimated a 10–15 minute walk from the old town center, but on the ground this isn’t a realistic walk — treat this ATM as needing a car or taxi, not a stroll. If you don’t have a car, this one drops off your realistic list. The other Seven Bank ATM is at the 7-Eleven in the Yamato area, useful only if you’re driving through. Per-withdrawal limit for foreign chip cards is up to ¥100,000, though your own bank’s limit may be lower; Seven Bank’s own fee is small (currently on the order of ¥110–220 depending on your card network), and your home bank will add its own charges.

Japan Post Bank — the realistic in-town, walkable option. Gujo Hachiman Post Office (Hachiman-cho Shimadani 776-1) has a JP Bank ATM that accepts foreign cards. Listed ATM hours are roughly 8:45–19:00 on weekdays and 9:00–17:00 on weekends — noticeably shorter than a 24-hour konbini machine, and smaller village post offices in the Takasu, Meiho, and Hirugano areas keep shorter hours still, some weekday-only. Foreign-card withdrawals at JP Bank ATMs are typically capped lower per transaction than Seven Bank (commonly ¥50,000) — do a bigger withdrawal in fewer transactions to save on fees. With the 7-Eleven effectively car-only, this post office ATM is realistically the main walkable option in town.

Lawson and FamilyMart — walkability confirmed, card support still not. The FamilyMart near Gujo Hachiman Station is a genuinely walkable option — roughly 15 minutes along the main road, with a sidewalk the whole way, though the road itself carries heavy traffic so stay alert. The in-town Lawson, by contrast, sits deep enough into town that walking there probably isn’t practical for most visitors. Neither of these is confirmed yet for foreign-card ATM support specifically — the walking distance is now settled, but whether the machine itself takes your card is still a “check when you’re there” item, not a guarantee.

Where there are no ATMs at all: the ski resorts, trailheads, and campsites. Once you leave the Hachiman town area heading into the mountains, assume zero access to cash. This matters because the mountain areas are exactly where cash-only lodges and rental counters live.

The strategy, in order of preference

  1. Before you arrive (strongly recommended). Exchange cash or make a big ATM withdrawal at Centrair airport, in Nagoya, or in any city — every urban 7-Eleven has a Seven Bank ATM. Arrive in Gujo already carrying the yen you expect to spend.
  2. ATM withdrawal in Gujo (the backup). The post office ATM (daytime) is the realistic walkable option; the 24-hour Seven Bank machine near the hospital exists but is effectively car/taxi-only, not a walk. Fine as a top-up, risky as your only plan — a machine can be out of service, and there’s no second machine around the corner here.
  3. Bank counter exchange (last resort, probably unavailable). Weekday-only, slow, and as covered above, very possibly not offered at all in Gujo.

The weekend and holiday trap

Bank counters close on weekends and national holidays, full stop. The post office counter closes too, and its ATM runs shorter weekend hours. If your trip has you arriving in Gujo on a Friday evening for a weekend stay — a very common pattern — your realistic cash source for the entire visit is the one 24-hour Seven Bank ATM. Check your card works in Japan before Friday night, or better, arrive with the cash already in hand.

New Year (roughly December 30 – January 3) is the extreme case: banks and many services shut down nationwide, and even some ATMs pause or run holiday schedules — plan your cash a week ahead if you’re visiting then.

How much cash should you actually carry?

Rough, honest numbers for Gujo, per person per day: a casual lunch runs ¥1,000–1,500, dinner ¥2,000–4,000, local buses and small admissions a few hundred yen each — and as we noted in our restaurant guide, several of the best places in town are cash-only. ¥10,000–15,000 per person per day in cash is a comfortable cushion for eating and getting around.

The big variable is lodging. Family-run minshuku and some ryokan still take cash only — that can be ¥8,000–15,000 per person per night on top. Confirm the payment method when you book (or in the booking listing); if it’s cash-only, add it to your total before you arrive.

Carrying a few tens of thousands of yen feels alarming to many visitors. For context, it’s normal here — Japan is a low-street-crime country and locals routinely carry similar amounts. Your hotel or lodging can usually hold valuables if it puts you at ease.

If you run out of cash entirely

It happens — a machine rejects your card, a cash-only dinner runs bigger than planned. In rough order:

  1. The 24-hour Seven Bank ATM near Gujo City Hospital, if you have a car or can taxi there. If your card failed at one network, it may still work here — Seven Bank accepts the widest range of foreign cards.
  2. Try the other network. JP Bank at the post office during ATM hours. Different networks reject different cards.
  3. Pay by card where you can. Convenience stores, chain stores, and a growing minority of restaurants and hotels do take credit cards — shift your card spending there and preserve remaining cash for the cash-only places.
  4. Talk to your lodging. Hosts here are used to the problem and can often point you to the nearest working option — or, at minimum, agree on settling up after you’ve reached an ATM.
  5. Genuinely stuck? The nearest full-service cash infrastructure is in Gifu City or Nagoya, both reachable by bus — inconvenient, but a fixable problem, not a disaster.

The real lesson is upstream: verify your card works at a Japanese ATM on your first day in Japan, not your first day in Gujo.

Last verified: July 2026 (re-checked Juroku Bank’s exchange-shop listings this update; JR Gifu Station shop appears suspended since March 2024; confirmed directly that the Hachiman branch does not offer counter exchange). ATM locations and hours from Seven Bank’s and Japan Post’s official locators; Juroku Bank exchange services from juroku.co.jp. Fees and limits change; treat the figures here as ballpark, not gospel.