Japan to launch new banknotes on Wednesday (7/3/2024); 1st design change in 20 years

12 comments

1. Hopefully it compels all those old people with billions upon billions of yen stuffed in their mattresses to spend it.

2. >In Japan, 18.54 billion banknotes were in circulation at the end of 2023. If they were lined up horizontally, it would be equivalent to eight times the distance between Earth and the Moon, Bank of Japan data showed.

   Good to know.

   Also, does it mean all vending machines will be useless for the coming few months/years ? I assume the new bills won’t be recognised, similarly to the new 500 yen coins.

3. It changes every 20 years..

4. I believe they have already been launched as one of the 1000-yen notes I used yesterday would not work on a change machine (at arcade) when all the rest of mine would. I tried multiple times as I thought maybe it was a crinkled note issue (although the note was as straight as the others which worked) and then finally noticed that the design on the note was different from the others. Was definitely not the older design either as I used it on a different coin change machine and it worked no problem (I assume the change machine I used had not had its specs changed yet as it was one near a whole bunch of gatcha machines (so outside of the actual arcade section, as opposed to the one which was directly inside the arcade, so one obviously gets much more use/foot traffic than the other. Also had a second 1000-yen note (with the new design), which wouldn’t work on the change design previously mentioned, but did work on a vending machine outside. *FYI for reference the area I used the notes in was Mount Fuji Station, in Fujiyoshida, Yamanashi. Will likely be different success rates, based on location and how often machines are serviced.

5. The font changes are a little bit… 🙃

6. Who would want to counterfeit a worthless currency anyway.

7. Japan loves their plant-based currency so much that they had to resort to importing them from a poorer nation. /s

8. New design, less value.

9. It really sucks tbh. Most of the super convenient vending machines that we’ve come to love are about to become useless. I doubt that all of them are going to get updated. 

10. On one of my first trips to Japan, I had some of my money exchanged into 2000 yen notes which must’ve just come out at the time. I didn’t understand why Japanese people were so fascinated when I went to pay for anything using their money lol

11. why do japanese people use so much cash? cashless makes transactions so much simpler

12. Didn’t mention the 500 yen coin. I think that changes as well