For subscribers
Japan’s new yen notes have a story to tell
The world’s most traded currencies have nothing fresh to say about their nation, but these banknotes are bucking that trend.
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox
Japan's banknotes today are the country's first redesigned ones in 20 years.
PHOTO: EPA-EFE
Gearoid Reidy
Considering the yen’s value these days, visitors to Japan are probably spending their cash so quickly that they are not stopping to examine it too carefully.
But its banknotes say a surprising amount about the country. And on July 3, for the first time in four decades, Japan had an entirely new series of bills featuring a trio of 19th- and early 20th-century intellectual and cultural titans.
