Japan's new banknotes spell pain for small firms

STORY: Japan is getting its first new banknotes in 20 years.

The fresh designs entered circulation on Wednesday, featuring technology meant to beat counterfeiters.

Some 7.5 billion of the bills will be printed this fiscal year.

But they won’t be a welcome sight for many small businesses.

Because Japan is a country that still loves cash, and payment by machine.

It’s the usual way at places like this Tokyo noodle joint.

Boss Shintaro Sekiguchi has had to upgrade the payment machines at his three branches, and he says that’s a big cost for a small business:

"The unit price of a bowl of ramen is not that high, so running the shop for a day or two would hardly pay for the replacement. It’s a huge burden for me to have to upgrade the ticket machines like this.”

In all, he says it’s cost him about 600,000 yen, or around $3,700, while doing nothing to boost sales.

Sekiguchi says upgrading to machines that also allow card payments was even more costly, and beyond his budget.

Such factors mean only around half of restaurant ticket systems are ready for the change.

Japan is a land of vending machines too.

It’s thought around 80% of the country’s 2.2 million drink dispensers will need an upgrade.

However, most ATMs, train ticket machines and retail cash registers are ready.

And some companies definitely aren’t complaining.

Takemori Kawanami is an executive at Elcom, which makes ticket machines.

He says it could take until the end of the year to meet all the demand.