About ATM in post offices

Hello,

Recently (since june 2011) I cannot any longer withdraw any cash from the ATM at the post offices with my foreign maestro card. The ATMs in 7 eleven still work just as fine as always. I am wondering If the post offices have generally stopped servicing international maestro cards?

No, they have not. Maestro cards are supposed to work.

Of course they are still supposed to. They still show the maestro logo. But at least in Tokyo all I get in the last weeks from the ATMs in post offices is a receipt saying that ''CREDIT SAISON'' cannot handle my request because they could not establish a connection. So I wonder if there are possibly more maestro cards affected in the same way.

I cannot be sure, but if you are still in Japan and are able to try again, among the service menu, try pressing (I am not sure of the exact wording in English, though) "Yucho (Japan Post) card" instead of "Other bank/credit card" at the ATM. Credit Saison is the acquirer for Japan Postal bank, so if their name appeared, that means they considered your card to be a credit card instead of an ATM card.