In Japan, even cash-dispensing machines need a little R&R sometimes.
This is a friendly heads-up from us here at SoraNews24 that all Mizuho ATM services will be disabled starting tonight (11 January) at midnight, and will remain unusable until 8 a.m. on Tuesday (15 January) morning.
This means if you have an account there, tonight is your last chance to get cash for the next three days. Not only are Mizuho ATMs to be shut down, but customers will not even be able to withdraw money from Mizuho accounts via third-party ATMs either.
▼ Don’t let his sexy smile fool you; he won’t be giving up the dough either.
This period is a long weekend in Japan with Monday celebrating Coming of Age Day when those who turned 20 in the previous year are honored by their local communities. But the fact of the matter is, ATMs closing down overnight or during holidays and weekends is not uncommon at all in Japan.
It might seem odd that Japan, with its reputation of grueling working conditions for humans, conversely has extremely cushy ATM labor conditions that are the envy of cash machines all over the world. And while teachers are burning out here in record numbers, its good to know that these metal boxes will be able to relax and read a book this weekend.
This shutdown is a part of a long-running system maintenance procedure by the bank which has been taking place about once a month since late last year, and is expected to occur again from 9 to 12 February, meaning ATMs will have gotten more downtime than many of Japan’s animators.
▼ Even the bank’s signs work in shifts so as not to get worn out
Of course security is important in banking, but in a place and time where an entire section of a train line can be transplanted underground in under four hours, it’s mind-boggling that banks in Japan can’t find a way to do this more quickly or in a staggered way so as not to shut down all services in the country for entire weekends at a time.
The downtime over this holiday weekend in particular may affect a lot more people in need of money, so we hope that any of our Mizuho-using readers out there who haven’t caught wind of this announcement do so and get some money to enjoy what little free time us humans in Japan are allotted.
Source: Mizuho Bank
Images: SoraNews24
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