Japan’s New Yen Notes Make Steady Progress

On 3 July 2024, the Bank of Japan (BoJ) began issuing its new series of banknotes, including the ¥10,000, ¥5,000, and ¥1,000 denominations, marking the first currency redesign in two decades. Almost a year later, as of the end of June 2025, c. 5 billion of the new banknotes had been issued, accounting for about 30% of the total volume of notes in circulation.

Although the penetration rate is still lower than during the previous renewal in 2004, when new notes constituted about 61.1% of the total in the same period, the BoJ states that the rollout is progressing smoothly and as expected.

A slower but steady transition

Three key factors can explain the more gradual shift.

First, the overall volume of cash in circulation has grown significantly.