In a true story, two sisters in Osaka were discovered to have hidden away an amount of yen equivalent to $54,000,000 USD in their house . Apparently, they were spooked when one of the banks they had used went out of business… Only in Japan.
For many years, low interest rates and a low crime rate have lead many housewives to squirrel away money in the nooks and crannies of their homes. Such tansu yokin or (cabinet deposits) , I have heard, lead to the loss of billions of yen during the Kobe earthquake in the 90’s. [Uninsured] money hidden in walls and floors was lost forever in heaps of rubble.
Maybe there is something to this ‘bank’ thing after all.
