Won't Miss #220 - paying for holiday ATM access

In the U.S., if you use the ATM of a bank other than your own, you have to pay a fee. This makes a little bit of sense because it's likely that there is some sort of special handling of electronic funds transferring between banks when you use a bank other than the one you keep an account in. In Japan, if you use an ATM of your own bank and it is a holiday or weekend, you have to pay a fee of 100 yen ($1.08). To me, this makes no sense at all because it's not like the machines have extra little men working behind them on weekends and holidays who need to be paid on those days. These fees are merely a way of gouging customers even when there is no extra cost to the bank for holiday access to the machines as compared to weekday access.

I won't miss being charged to use my own bank's ATM's based on the date or time.

Won't Miss #114 - key money & contract renewal fees

Though it isn't always the case, you often have to pay two months of "gift" money when you first sign a contract and one to three months again every two years when you renew your contract. This is mandatory, though it can be negotiated in some cases. The money is little more than extortion and a way of extracting more money from the tenant. In some cities, this is illegal and there has been much talk of outlawing it all over Japan, but there will always be a way for landlords to get around the law. Since moving is far from cheap in Japan, tenants have a choice between paying these fees or forking out money to move at an expense not appreciably less than some of these required "gifts".

I won't miss this extortion when dealing with rental contracts.