Japan’s New Banknotes Go to Press, Debuting a World-First 3D Hologram Security Feature

Japan’s redesigned banknotes, due to enter circulation in 2024, rolled off the presses at the National Printing Bureau’s Tokyo plant on September 1, according to Japanese media reports.

It marks the first rethink of Japanese banknote artwork since 2004, and the physical new 10,000-yen note was unveiled to the public for the first time the same day.

The new 10,000-yen note carries the portrait of entrepreneur Eiichi Shibusawa, widely known as the father of Japanese capitalism, and is the first banknote anywhere in the world to adopt 3D image rotating hologram technology.

Bringing such technology onto a banknote was previously almost beyond imagining—so the “black technology” label is well earned.

Thanks to the 3D holographic projection used, the entire head of the portrait appears on the note—not only the face, but even the side of the head is clearly visible.

As the illustration shows, the image delivers a 3D holographic effect that can be viewed from both the front and the side.

The redesign also enlarges the denomination figure “10000”, maximizing the Arabic numerals in place of the kanji characters previously used to indicate value, so that people with impaired vision can identify a note’s worth by touch.

It likewise makes yen amounts easier to recognize for visitors from countries outside the kanji cultural sphere, in step with the broader trend toward internationalization.

The notes receiving new designs are the 10,000-yen, 5,000-yen and 1,000-yen denominations; the 2,000-yen note, which circulates in comparatively small numbers, remains unchanged.

The portrait on the new 10,000-yen note belongs to the industrialist Eiichi Shibusawa, hailed as the “father of Japanese capitalism.”

A leading industrialist of Japan’s Meiji and Taisho eras, Shibusawa has been given such titles as “father of Japanese enterprise,” “king of Japanese finance,” “guide of Japan’s modern economy,” “father of Japanese capitalism” and “father of Japan’s modern industrial world.”

The new 5,000-yen note features Tsuda Umeko, founder of Tsuda University.

A pioneer of women’s education in the Meiji and Taisho periods and the founder of Tsuda University, Tsuda Umeko never married and devoted her whole heart to women’s higher education, helping to reform women’s standing in society.

The new 1,000-yen note honors Kitasato Shibasaburo, the Japanese bacteriologist and immunologist who established serum therapy.

Baron Kitasato Shibasaburo was a Japanese physician and a renowned bacteriologist and immunologist who opened up the new scientific field of serology in Japan.

Notably, the portrait on the front of the 10,000-yen note is being replaced for the first time in 40 years, since it switched from Prince Shotoku to Fukuzawa Yukichi in 1984.

The reverse of the 10,000-yen note changes from the phoenix to the Marunouchi Station Building at Tokyo Station; the 5,000-yen note’s reverse swaps irises for wisteria; and the 1,000-yen note’s reverse moves from Mount Fuji and cherry blossoms to “The Great Wave off Kanagawa,” the signature work from Katsushika Hokusai’s “Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji.”

Japan will also issue a new 500-yen coin in 2021.

To guard against counterfeiting, Japanese banknote designs are refreshed roughly every 20 years. The portraits on the new notes are three-dimensional images reproduced through holographic technology, and a “universal design” concept has been introduced so that people of all ages can use them with ease.

Yet once word of the new notes got out, Japanese netizens appeared unimpressed, grumbling that the designs are ugly—some even took matters into their own hands and reworked the portraits to suit their own tastes.

User @bokoyai turned the 1,000-yen note into a 2,000-yen note featuring a cat—brimming with cuteness and very good-looking indeed!

Another Japanese designer, @PonkichiM, said on Twitter: after seeing someone wish for a Shiba Inu banknote, I gave drawing one a try—what a wonderfully comforting note it makes!

As for the new Japanese banknotes, do you think they look good?

—This article is reprinted from China Packaging Network (pack.cn); original link: http://news.pack.cn/show-378251.html