Japan yesterday began circulating its first new banknotes in 20 years, featuring 3D 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,” Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said at a function.
Photo: AP
The step comes just as the economy moves into a growth-driven phase for the first time in three decades, Kishida said.
Existing bills will stay in use, but 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 digitize the economy.
The new ￥10,000 (US$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.”
Photo: REUTERS
The new ￥5,000 bill portrays educator Umeko Tsuda (1864-1929), who founded one of the first women’s universities in Japan, while the ￥1,000 bill features a pioneering medical scientist, Shibasaburo Kitasato (1853-1931).
While Kishida talked up the latest technology to fight counterfeiting, it is not a major problem in Japan. The 681 fake banknotes police detected last year represented a sharp drop from a record high of 25,858 in 2004.
Authorities plan to print about 7.5 billion newly designed bills by the end of this fiscal year, swelling the 18.5 billion banknotes, worth ￥125 trillion, in circulation by December last year.
“Cash is a secure means of payment that can be used by anyone, anywhere and at any time, and it will continue to play a significant role” despite alternatives, Bank of Japan Governor Kazuo Ueda said.
The central bank has experimented with digital currencies, but the government has made no decision whether to issue a digital yen.
Cashless payments in Japan have almost tripled over the past decade to account for 39 percent of consumer spending last year, but still lag global peers and should rise to 80 percent to boost productivity, the government has said.
Nearly 90 percent of bank ATMs, train ticket machines and retail cash registers are ready for the new bills, but only half of restaurant and parking ticket machines, the Japan Vending Machine Manufacturers’ Association said.
Almost 80 percent of the nation’s 2.2 million drink vending machines also need upgrades, the association said.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) secured a record 70.2 percent share of the global foundry business in the second quarter, up from 67.6 percent the previous quarter, and continued widening its lead over second-placed Samsung Electronics Co, TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said on Monday. TSMC posted US$30.24 billion in sales in the April-to-June period, up 18.5 percent from the previous quarter, driven by major smartphone customers entering their ramp-up cycle and robust demand for artificial intelligence chips, laptops and PCs, which boosted wafer shipments and average selling prices, TrendForce said in a report. Samsung’s sales also grew in the second quarter, up
LIMITED IMPACT: Investor confidence was likely sustained by its relatively small exposure to the Chinese market, as only less advanced chips are made in Nanjing Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) saw its stock price close steady yesterday in a sign that the loss of the validated end user (VEU) status for its Nanjing, China, fab should have a mild impact on the world’s biggest contract chipmaker financially and technologically. Media reports about the waiver loss sent TSMC down 1.29 percent during the early trading session yesterday, but the stock soon regained strength and ended at NT$1,160, unchanged from Tuesday. Investors’ confidence in TSMC was likely built on its relatively small exposure to the Chinese market, as Chinese customers contributed about 9 percent to TSMC’s revenue last
LOOPHOLES: The move is to end a break that was aiding foreign producers without any similar benefit for US manufacturers, the US Department of Commerce said US President Donald Trump’s administration would make it harder for Samsung Electronics Co and SK Hynix Inc to ship critical equipment to their chipmaking operations in China, dealing a potential blow to the companies’ production in the world’s largest semiconductor market. The US Department of Commerce in a notice published on Friday said that it was revoking waivers for Samsung and SK Hynix to use US technologies in their Chinese operations. The companies had been operating in China under regulations that allow them to import chipmaking equipment without applying for a new license each time. The move would revise what is known
UNCERTAINTY: A final ruling against the president’s tariffs would upend his trade deals and force the government to content with billions of dollars in refunds The legal fight over US President Donald Trump’s global tariffs is deepening after a federal appeals court ruled the levies were issued illegally under an emergency law, extending the chaos in global trade. A 7-4 decision by a panel of judges on Friday was a major setback for Trump, even as it gives both sides something to boast about. The majority upheld a May ruling by the Court of International Trade that the tariffs were illegal. However, the judges left the levies intact while the case proceeds, as Trump had requested, and suggested that any injunction could potentially be narrowed to apply
RSS