Officials attend the"10,000 Yen Bill Handover Ceremony" at Tokyo Stock Exchange Wednesday, July 3, 2024, in Tokyo. Newly designed banknotes, 10,000 yen , 5,000 yen and 1,000 yen went into circulation Wednesday for the first time in 20 years. Japan issued its first new banknotes in two decades Wednesday, yen packed with 3-D hologram technology to fight counterfeiting.
While the new bills were released with fanfare, currency already in use will remain valid. In fact, people will still need older bills to use most vending machines and to pay bus fares, local media reported. The 5,000 yen bill, worth about $30, features Umeko Tsuda, a pioneer feminist and educator who founded a college. The 1,000 yen note, worth about $6.20, portrays physician and bacteriologist Shibasaburo Kitasato, who was instrumental in the research of tetanus and the bubonic plague.
By the end of March next year, nearly 7.5 billion new banknotes will have been printed, according to the government. The amount of money in the new bills going out in a single day is estimated at 1.6 trillion yen .