Bank of Japan starts issuing new banknotes, expected to be available to public from noon

Samples of Japan's new bills are seen at the National Printing Bureau's Tokyo Plant in the capital's Kita Ward on June 19, 2024. (Mainichi/Kenji Ikai)

TOKYO -- The Bank of Japan (BOJ) began issuing three types of new banknotes on the morning of July 3, and they are expected to be available to individuals and businesses through financial institutions as early as around noon.

This is the first update of the banknote in about 20 years. The 10,000-yen (about $62) note is adorned by Eiichi Shibusawa, an industrialist considered to be the father of capitalism in Japan. On the new 5,000-yen (about $31) note is Umeko Tsuda, founder of Tsuda University in the Japanese capital. Lastly, carried on the 1,000-yen (roughly $6.20) note is Shibasaburo Kitazato (sometimes rendered as Kitasato), a microbiologist who established a treatment for tetanus.

The BOJ's head office in Tokyo's Chuo Ward and 32 branches across the country began issuing the new notes at 8 a.m., one hour earlier than usual. At the head office, BOJ chief Kazuo Ueda said, "While the use of cashless transactions is progressing, cash is a means of payment that anyone can use without anxiety and will continue to play a major role in the future. I hope that (the new banknotes) will be widely distributed to the public and become a lubricant supporting the economy."

The BOJ has already begun handing over the banknotes stored in its vaults to the various financial institutions and loading them onto cash transport vehicles. On July 3, 1.6 trillion yen (roughly $9.9 billion) worth of new banknotes are scheduled to be released into the market.

(Japanese original by Taiki Asakawa, Business News Department)