How to become a Bank Teller
Also called: Bank counter clerk, Credit union teller, Foreign exchange counter clerk, Post office savings counter clerk
Handles deposits, withdrawals, transfers and currency exchange at the counter of banks, shinkin banks, credit cooperatives and other financial institutions, and advises customers.
Main tasks
- Greeting and serving customers who come to the bank counter
- Handling cash deposits, withdrawals and transfers at the counter
- Counting cash and cheques and checking the amounts against the slips
- Receiving applications such as opening new accounts and changes of address
- Checking customers' identity
- Explaining and selling products and services such as loans, term deposits and savings bonds
- Explaining investment options to customers and selling related products
- Giving customers information on foreign exchange and calculating exchange amounts and fees
- Entering customers' transactions into the computer to record them
- Guiding customers through inheritance procedures
- Handling loan procedures
- Running and managing ATMs
- Handling insurance claims and signing up new insurance customers
- Processing payments through the national interbank clearing system
- Balancing notes, coins and cheques at the end of the day and calculating the day's transaction totals
Workers in this job say university is common. From job tag's survey of people in each job, who could give several answers. It shows what workers see as common, not how many workers hold each level.
How to become one
No particular education or qualification is required to start. Most people who join are new graduates. Mid-career hires usually have experience at bank counters. After joining, you learn how to handle cash, cheques, passbooks and slips and then serve customers at the counter. The knowledge and skills you need are gained through training after joining, experience in several departments and your own study. Related qualifications include the 'financial counter services skills' certificate under the ginou kentei (national trade skills test) set by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare and the private banking business test. Counters also handle bonds, insurance and investment trusts, so you are expected to gain the securities sales representative and insurance sales agent qualifications after joining. With more advice work for individual customers, a financial planner qualification is also useful. You answer customers' questions and give advice, so you need customer service skills and wide knowledge of products. You also handle a lot of cash and cheques, so accurate paperwork and a strict sense of responsibility for money are needed.
Ways in
- Vocational college, junior college, kosen and trade skills tests: National trade skills test (技能検定). Certified skilled worker (技能士) grades that job tag lists for this job: 1級金融窓口サービス技能士、2級金融窓口サービス技能士、3級金融窓口サービス技能士. The trade skills tests are national tests set under the Human Resources Development Promotion Act.
Pay · Job openings · AI and this job
- Average annual income: ¥5,122,400 Private sector only: employers with 10 or more staff. Public servants, such as public school teachers and police officers, are not in these figures.
- Monthly base pay (before overtime and bonus): median ¥291,100, and the middle half earn ¥241,600 to ¥367,100 a month.
- Pay measured for the wage survey group: Accountancy clerks
- 0.62 job openings per applicant at Hello Work (2025). A current demand signal, not a projection. It counts only the jobs and job seekers registered at Hello Work, Japan's public employment offices, and many graduate and professional hires never pass through it.
- Generative AI could change many tasks in this job, which usually reshapes the work more than it replaces it, by the ILO's global estimate.
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Questions people ask
How do I become a Bank Teller?
No particular education or qualification is required to start. Most people who join are new graduates. Mid-career hires usually have experience at bank counters. After joining, you learn how to handle cash, cheques, passbooks and slips and then serve customers at the counter. The knowledge and skills you need are gained through training after joining, experience in several departments and your own study. Related qualifications include the 'financial counter services skills' certificate under the ginou kentei (national trade skills test) set by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare and the private banking business test. Counters also handle bonds, insurance and investment trusts, so you are expected to gain the securities sales representative and insurance sales agent qualifications after joining. With more advice work for individual customers, a financial planner qualification is also useful. You answer customers' questions and give advice, so you need customer service skills and wide knowledge of products. You also handle a lot of cash and cheques, so accurate paperwork and a strict sense of responsibility for money are needed.
How much does a Bank Teller earn in Japan?
Average annual income in the private sector, bonus included, is ¥5,122,400 (Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare). The figure is for the wage survey group Accountancy clerks, which covers several jobs.
Do you need a degree to become a Bank Teller?
Not always. In this job's census occupation group, 36% of workers are university graduates. Ways in include: National trade skills test (技能検定).
Will AI change the work of a Bank Teller?
Generative AI could change many tasks in this job, which usually reshapes the work more than it replaces it, by the ILO's global estimate.
Sources
- Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare: Basic Survey on Wage Structure (賃金構造基本統計調査) 2025: earnings by occupation (2025 survey (June 2025 pay, 2024 bonus), published 2026-03-24), Government Standard Terms of Use 2.0, retrieved 4 October 2026
- Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare: Employment Referrals for General Workers (一般職業紹介状況): Hello Work job-openings-to-applicants ratio by occupation (2025 annual (release of 2026-10-02)), Government Standard Terms of Use 2.0, retrieved 4 October 2026
- Statistics Bureau of Japan (MIC): 2020 Population Census (令和2年国勢調査) detailed sample tabulation: employed by occupation, sex, age and education (2020 Census (tables 9-1 and 15-1, published 2022-12-27)), Government Standard Terms of Use 2.0, retrieved 4 October 2026
- JILPT (職業情報データベース) via MHLW job tag: job tag download data: 解説系 (descriptions, how to become, related qualifications) and 簡易版数値系 (interests, tasks, education) (解説系 ver.7.01 (2026-06-04); 簡易版数値系 ver.7.00 (2026-03-17)), retrieved 4 October 2026
- International Labour Organization, Generative AI and Jobs: A Refined Global Index of Occupational Exposure (ILO Working Paper 140, Gmyrek et al.) (ILO Working Paper 140, May 2025, Annex Table A1), CC BY 4.0, retrieved 4 October 2026
独立行政法人労働政策研究・研修機構(JILPT)作成 職業情報データベース 解説系ダウンロードデータ(IPD_DL_description_7_01.xlsx)ver.7.01 職業情報提供サイト(job tag)より2026年10月4日にダウンロード(https://shigoto.mhlw.go.jp/User/download)を加工して作成
独立行政法人労働政策研究・研修機構(JILPT)作成 職業情報データベース 簡易版数値系ダウンロードデータ(IPD_DL_numeric_7_00.xlsx)ver.7.00 職業情報提供サイト(job tag)より2026年10月4日にダウンロード(https://shigoto.mhlw.go.jp/User/download)を加工して作成
Sources: JILPT Occupational Information Database download data via job tag (解説系 ver.7.01 and 簡易版数値系 ver.7.00, downloaded 4 October 2026), processed by Peernovo; MHLW, Basic Survey on Wage Structure 2025; Statistics Bureau of Japan, 2020 Population Census; MEXT, School Basic Survey 2025; MHLW, Employment Referrals for General Workers (Hello Work statistics). Figures processed by Peernovo. English job names, translations and the matching of jobs to statistical groups, schools and degree fields by Peernovo.
Updated 4 October 2026
