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.
SEEKING CLARITY: Washington should not adopt measures that create uncertainties for ‘existing semiconductor investments,’ TSMC said referring to its US$165 billion in the US Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) told the US that any future tariffs on Taiwanese semiconductors could reduce demand for chips and derail its pledge to increase its investment in Arizona. “New import restrictions could jeopardize current US leadership in the competitive technology industry and create uncertainties for many committed semiconductor capital projects in the US, including TSMC Arizona’s significant investment plan in Phoenix,” the chipmaker wrote in a letter to the US Department of Commerce. TSMC issued the warning in response to a solicitation for comments by the department on a possible tariff on semiconductor imports by US President Donald Trump’s
‘FAILED EXPORT CONTROLS’: Jensen Huang said that Washington should maximize the speed of AI diffusion, because not doing so would give competitors an advantage Nvidia Corp cofounder and chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) yesterday criticized the US government’s restrictions on exports of artificial intelligence (AI) chips to China, saying that the policy was a failure and would only spur China to accelerate AI development. The export controls gave China the spirit, motivation and government support to accelerate AI development, Huang told reporters at the Computex trade show in Taipei. The competition in China is already intense, given its strong software capabilities, extensive technology ecosystems and work efficiency, he said. “All in all, the export controls were a failure. The facts would suggest it,” he said. “The US
The government has launched a three-pronged strategy to attract local and international talent, aiming to position Taiwan as a new global hub following Nvidia Corp’s announcement that it has chosen Taipei as the site of its Taiwan headquarters. Nvidia cofounder and CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) on Monday last week announced during his keynote speech at the Computex trade show in Taipei that the Nvidia Constellation, the company’s planned Taiwan headquarters, would be located in the Beitou-Shilin Technology Park (北投士林科技園區) in Taipei. Huang’s decision to establish a base in Taiwan is “primarily due to Taiwan’s talent pool and its strength in the semiconductor
French President Emmanuel Macron has expressed gratitude to Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) for its plan to invest approximately 250 million euros (US$278 million) in a joint venture in France focused on the semiconductor and space industries. On his official X account on Tuesday, Macron thanked Hon Hai, also known globally as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), for its investment projects announced at Choose France, a flagship economic summit held on Monday to attract foreign investment. In the post, Macron included a GIF displaying the national flag of the Republic of China (Taiwan), as he did for other foreign investors, including China-based