TOKYO: Japan began circulating its first new banknotes in 20 years on Wednesday, featuring three-dimensional portraits of the founders of financial and female education institutions in an attempt to frustrate counterfeiters.
The notes use printed patterns to generate holograms of the portraits facing different directions, depending on the angle of view, employing a technology that Japan’s National Printing Bureau says is the world’s first for paper money.
“Faces of those representing Japan’s capitalism, women’s empowerment and technology innovation are on the new bills,” Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said at a function.
The step comes just as the economy moves into a growth-driven phase for the first time in three decades, he added.
Though existing bills stay in use, train stations, parking lots and ramen shops are scrambling to upgrade payment machines as the government pushes consumers and businesses to use less cash in its bid to digitise the economy.
The new 10,000-yen ($62) note depicts Eiichi Shibusawa (1840-1931), the founder of the first bank and stock exchange, who is often called “the father of Japanese capitalism”.
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