TOKYO: Japan will start the issuance of new bank notes as early as the first half of July 2024, Finance Minister Shunichi Suzuki said Wednesday.

The starting date of the issuance will be set about six months in advance. The last time Japan introduced new bank notes was in 2004.

“We ask financial institutions and private business operators to make preparations,” such as updating automated teller machines, Suzuki told reporters after inspecting the production process for the new bank notes at the National Printing Bureau’s Tokyo Plant.

The printing bureau began mass production of the new bank notes last year and plans to print some 3 billion sheets in the current fiscal year through March 2024.

The new bank notes include a 10,000-yen note featuring Eiichi Shibusawa, known as the father of capitalism in Japan.

They will be the first in the world to use such technologies as 3D holography, which makes the portraits on the notes appear to move three-dimensionally when tilted, and high-resolution patterns in the watermarks.

“We expect (the new bank notes) to be known as hard to counterfeit and easy for everyone to use,” Suzuki said.

JIJI Press