When the Bank of Japan issues new 1,000-, 5,000-, and 10,000-yen notes on July 3, the notes will be Japan’s first in 20 years to have a design change.

The ¥10,000 note (equivalent to about $60) has the portrait of entrepreneur Shibusawa Eiichi, father of Japanese capitalism, who had a hand in the creation of hundreds of companies. Tsuda Umeko, the first Japanese woman to study abroad, and a pioneer of Japanese education, replaces author Higuchi Ichiyo on the ¥5,000 bill, and Kitasato Shibasaburo, a bacteriologist who developed a treatment for tetanus is on the ¥1,000 instead of the medical researcher Noguchi Hideyo.

The note backs have Tokyo Station on the ¥10,000 note, wisteria flowers on the ¥5,000 note, and the famous print The Great Wave off Kanagawa by Katsushika Hokusa on the ¥1,000 note.

The notes will feature, as an anti-counterfeiting measure, what is said to be the world’s first three-dimensional holograms making the portraits on the bills appear to rotate when tilted. They also have intaglio printing, high-definition watermarks and watermark-bar-patterns indicative of the denomination, micro-printing, luminescent ink, and pearl ink that appears as a pink, pearly pattern in the blank areas of the left and right margins when tilted.

Close to five billion notes were printed in advance. Bank of Japan will distribute them to financial institutions, and they will also be distributed over the counter and through ATMs.

Small and mid-sized businesses have complained about the high cost of switching over, and some local governments have been giving subsidies. Only about half the automatic checkout machines at parking lots and ticket machines at restaurants are expected to be able to immediately accept the new bank notes, and only 20% to 30% of drink vending machines.

Connect with Coin World:  
Sign up for our free eNewsletter
Access our Dealer Directory  
Like us on Facebook  
Follow us on X (Twitter)
Keep in touch on MyCollect - the social media platform for collectibles 

Whether you’re a current subscriber or new, you can take advantage of the best offers on magazine subscriptions available in digital, print or both! Whether you want your issue every week or every month, there’s a subscription to meet your needs.