Japan is set to issue redesigned ¥10,000, ¥5,000 and ¥1,000 banknotes on Wednesday incorporating the latest anti-counterfeit technologies and featuring historical figures.
Although more people are embracing cashless payment methods, the new banknotes are still stirring excitement among local residents of the hometowns of the newly featured individuals — entrepreneur Eiichi Shibusawa, higher education pioneer Umeko Tsuda and bacteriologist Shibasaburo Kitasato — and people who just want to see for themselves what the new notes look like.
The last time Japan redesigned its banknotes was 20 years ago. Since the country issued its first banknote in 1885, there have been 53 kinds of notes printed so far.
Here is what you need to know about the new banknotes.
What new features are incorporated?
The new banknotes have many new security features, including some world firsts, to prevent counterfeiting and add to their usability.
Besides the intaglio-printed and watermark portraits that are commonly used on banknotes, the redesigned ¥10,000 and ¥5,000 notes feature three-dimensional holographic stripes that show the portraits at different angles when tilted. The ¥1,000 note also has a similar holographic patch at the bottom left corner.
In addition, the new notes use enlarged Arabic numerals for better identification of their face value, replacing the existing Japanese kanji characters on the previous series.
In recent years, crimes involving counterfeit banknotes have been on the decline, due partly to the spread of cashless payments. In 2020, 2,693 banknote counterfeit cases were reported to police. In 2023, only 681 were reported.
When and where can I get these new banknotes?
Although the new banknotes will be issued on Wednesday, chances are you probably won’t be able to get hold of them on the same day.
The Bank of Japan will first start offering the new banknotes to financial institutions, and those banks will start using them once they are prepared. This means it will vary between financial institutions when the new banknotes are made available to users via ATMs and cashier windows.
The central bank had prepared 4.53 billion redesigned banknotes by the end of March. It expects this to reach 5 billion by Wednesday.
In addition, old banknotes will still be accepted once the new ones are in circulation, according to the central bank and the Finance Ministry.
Around 80% to 90% of banks, railway stations, convenience stores and supermarkets will finish updating their machines to accept the new banknotes before Wednesday, according to a Finance Ministry survey. Street vending machines and ticketing machines at restaurants, however, are expected to take much longer to be updated.
Who are the new faces on the banknotes?
The new ¥10,000 note features Eiichi Shibusawa, hailed as the “father of Japanese capitalism” for his contribution in introducing modern capitalism to Japan. After the Meiji Restoration, he founded the first modern bank in the nation. Shibusawa was also involved in establishing about 500 companies throughout his lifetime, some of which are currently listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
The face on the new ¥5,000 note is that of Umeko Tsuda, an educator from the Meiji Era (1868-1912) who was also one of the first-ever Japanese women to study overseas. She arrived in the United States at the age of 6, attended school in Washington and studied there until she was 18.
From 1889 to 1892, she returned to the U.S. to study at Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania. After returning to Japan, she founded a women-only English school that later became one of the most prestigious women's universities in Japan. Tsuda was also known as the first Japanese woman to publish a paper in a Western academic journal.
Shibasaburo Kitasato, a bacteriologist who founded the department of medicine at Keio University, is the new face on the redesigned ¥1,000 banknote. He later became the first president of the predecessor of what is now the Japan Medical Association.
One of 15 people nominated for the first Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine in 1901, he co-discovered an antitoxin against diphtheria with Emil von Behring, for which the latter became the prize’s first laureate.
The back of the new notes have also been redesigned. The ¥10,000, ¥5,000 and ¥1,000 banknotes feature Tokyo Station’s Marunouchi Building, Japanese wisteria flowers and ukiyo-e painter Katsushika Hokusai’s iconic “The Great Wave off Kanagawa,” respectively.