As of September 2024, We have 2 sets of bills that are circulating because new bills are issued in July 2024.
There are 4 bills (banknotes) and 6 coins.
Bills: 10,000 yen, 5,000 yen , 1,000 yen and 2,000 yen*
Coins：500 yen, 100yen, 50 yen, 10 yen, 5 yen, and 1 yen
You can see all the bills (banknotes) and coins currently used in Bank of Japan website: Bank of Japan Notes and Coins Currently Issued : 日本銀行 Bank of Japan (boj.or.jp)
・As for coins, the number is written on coins except for 5 yen. 50 yen coin and 5 yen coin has hole in the middle. Silver one with hole is 50 yen and yellow one is 5 yen.
・Vending machines accept bills and coins, with the exception of 1 yen and 5 yen coins.
・Because new bills were recently issued, as of September 2024, some of the vending machines may not accept new bills .
*2,000 yen bill was issued in year 2000 to commemorate the 26th G8 Summit held in Okinawa and the millennium. The front design is the famous gate in Okinawa. It is rare but you can still use it today.
Before covid, cash was king. After the covid, more people use other method of payment including credit cards, IC cards, and Japanese Cashless Payment Services. However, some small individual shops still only accept cash and you will need some coins in vending machines (especially if you are buying ticket) it is safer to have some cash with you.
When you go back, you can only exchange bills at airport, so it would be better to use coins before you go back to the airport.
Who are the persons on the new bills?
10,000 yen: Eiichi SHIBUSAWA
Japanese businessman. At the age of 27, he accompanied Tokugawa Shobu, the younger brother of the 15th shogun, Tokugawa Yoshinobu, to visit the World Exposition in Paris and other European countries. After returning to Japan from Europe following the Meiji Restoration, he established the “Commercial Law Office” in Shizuoka. Later, he was invited to join the Meiji government, and as a bureaucrat in the Ministry of Finance under Kaoru Inoue, he was deeply involved in the creation of the new nation by formulating various policies such as minting, family registers, and cash receipts and disbursements.
After retiring from the Ministry of Finance, he moved into the business world, founding and managing companies and organizations such as the First National Bank, the Tokyo Chamber of Commerce, and the Tokyo Stock Exchange. He is said to have been involved in about 500 companies during his lifetime and is called “the creator of modern Japanese society. At the same time, he was instrumental in establishing and supporting about 600 educational institutions, social and public services, and research institutes.
5,000 yen: Umeko TSUDA
Japanese educator. Founder of the Women’s English Language School (now Tsuda College), she came to the U.S. with the Iwakura Mission in 1871 at the age of 6 as Japan’s first female exchange student. She stayed in Georgetown, near Washington, D.C., for about 11 years before returning to Japan at the age of 17. She is appointed as a professor at the Peeresses’ School（girl’s school for children of noblity). Wishing to establish her own school to raise the status of women, Umeko decided to study abroad again, and in 1889, she went back to the U.S. and majored in biology at Bryn Mawr College. She returned to Japan in 1892. She founded the Women’s English School in 1900. Throughout her life, she devoted herself to the improvement of women’s status and women’s higher education.
1,000 yen: Shibasaburo KITASATO
Bacteriologist known as the “father of modern Japanese medicine. In 1889, he succeeded in cultivating tetanus bacillus for the first time in the world, and the following year, he surprised the world by discovering tetanus antitoxin. After returning to Japan in 1892, he established the Research Institute of Infectious Diseases, and in 1894, he went to Hong Kong to investigate the cause of the plague and discovered the plague bacillus.
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