Japanese yen

Japanese Yen

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Japanese yen

The (sign

Currency sign

A currency sign is a graphic symbol often used as a shorthand for a currency's name. Internationally, ISO 4217 codes are used instead of currency signs, though currency signs may be in common use in their respective countries....
: ¥; code

ISO 4217

ISO 4217 is the international standard describing three-letter codes to define the names of currency established by the International Organization for Standardization ....
: JPY) is the currency

Currency

A currency is a Medium of exchange, facilitating the trade of goods and/or Service s. It is coins and paper bills used as money. It is one form of money, where money is anything that serves as a medium of exchange, a store of value, and a standard of value....
of Japan

Japan

Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, People's Republic of China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south....
. It is the third most-traded currency in the foreign exchange market after the euro

Euro

The euro is the official currency of 16 out of 27 European Union member state of the European Union . The states, known collectively as the Eurozone are: Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Republic of Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Spain....
and the United States dollar

United States dollar

The United States dollar is the unit of currency of the United States and was defined by the Coinage Act of 1792 to be between 371 and 416 grains of silver ....
. It is also widely used as a reserve currency

Reserve currency

A reserve currency is a currency which is held in significant quantities by many governments and institutions as part of their foreign exchange reserves....
after the U.S. dollar, the euro and the pound sterling

Pound sterling

----The pound sterling , subdivided into 100 pence , is the currency of the United Kingdom, its Crown dependency and the British Overseas Territories of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands and British Antarctic Territory....
. As is common when counting in East Asia

Chinese numerals

Chinese numerals are characters for writing numbers in Chinese language. Today, speakers of Chinese use three numeral systems:the ubiquitous system of Arabic numeral system, along with two ancient Chinese numeral systems....
, large quantities of yen are often counted in multiples of 10,000 (man, ?) in the same way as values in Western countries are often quoted in thousands.

Japanese

Japanese language

IPA: [n?iho?go] is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is related to the Ryukyuan languages....
pronunciation is "en", the spelling and pronunciation "yen" is standard in English

English language

English is a West Germanic language that originated in Anglo-Saxon England and has lingua franca status in many parts of the world as a result of the military, economic, scientific, political and cultural influence of the British Empire in the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries and that of the United States from the mid 20th century onwa...
.

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Encyclopedia

The (sign

Currency sign

ISO 4217

Currency

Japan

Euro

United States dollar

Reserve currency

Pound sterling

Chinese numerals

Pronunciation and etymology

The Japanese

Japanese language

English language

Edo

, literally: Headlands and bays-door, "estuary", ), also Romanization of Japanese as Yedo or Yeddo, is the Geographical renaming of the Capital of Japan Tokyo, and was the seat of power for the Tokugawa shogunate which ruled Japan from 1603 to 1868....
era to the early Meiji

Meiji

Meiji...
era, spelled words in such a way. In the 16th century, Japanese "e(?)/we(?)" had been pronouced [je] and Portuguese missionaries had spelled it that way. Some time thereafter, and by the middle of the 18th century, "e/we" came to be pronouced [e], just as it is in modern Japanese. However, some regions retain the [je] pronunciation. Walter Henry Medhurst

Walter Henry Medhurst

Walter Henry Medhurst , was an England Congregational church missionary to China, born in London and educated at St Paul's School , was one of the early translators of the Bible into Chinese language editions....
, who had not come to Japan and interviewed with some Japanese in Batavia

Batavia

Batavia is the Latin name for the land of the Batavians during Roman times. This was roughly the area around the city of Nijmegen within the Roman Empire....
(Jakarta

Jakarta

Jakarta is the Capital and largest city of Indonesia. It also has a List of urban areas by population than any other city in Southeast Asia. It was formerly known as Sunda Kelapa , Jayakarta , Batavia, Dutch East Indies , and Djakarta ....
), spelled some "e"s as "ye" in his An English and Japanese, and Japanese and English (1830). In the early Meiji era, James Curtis Hepburn

James Curtis Hepburn

James Curtis Hepburn was born in Milton, Pennsylvania. He attended Princeton University and University of Pennsylvania universities and became a Physician....
, following Medhurst, spelled all "e"s as "ye" in his A Japanese and English dictionary (1st ed. 1867). That was the first full-scale Japanese-English/English-Japanese dictionary, which influenced Westerners in Japan greatly, and probably prompted the spelling "yen" strongly. Since he knew "ye" was different from the actual situation of contemporary Japanese, he revised all "ye"s to "e" in the 3rd edition (1886), excepted "yen" and the Japanese particle "ye(?)". Because those two were probably already fixed and those two have remained so ever since.

The word was borrowed from the Chinese

Chinese language

Chinese or the Sinitic language is a language family consisting of language mutually unintelligible to varying degrees. Originally the indigenous languages spoken by the Han Chinese in China, it forms one of the two branches of Sino-Tibetan languages of languages....
(Mandarin) yuán (? or ?) (see Chinese yuan

Chinese yuan

The yuan is, in the Chinese language, the base unit of a number of modern Chinese currencies. The same character is used to refer to the cognate currency units of Japan and Korea, and is used to translate the currency unit "dollar"; for example, the United States dollar is called Meiyuan , or "American yuan", in Chinese....
).

History

Introduction

The yen was introduced by the Meiji

Meiji period

The , or Meiji era, denotes the 45-year reign of the Meiji Emperor, running, in the Gregorian calendar, from 23 October 1868 to 30 July 1912. During this time, Japan started its modernization and rose to world power status....
government in 1872 as a system resembling those in Europe

Europe

Europe is, conventionally, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural , the Caspian Sea, and by the Caucasus Mountains to the southeast....
. The yen replaced the complex monetary system of the Edo period

Edo period

The , or , is a division of History of Japan running from 1603 to 1868. The period marks the governance of the Edo or Tokugawa shogunate, which was officially established in 1603 by the first Edo shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu....
, based on the mon. The New Currency Act of 1871 stipulated the adoption of the decimal accounting system of yen (1, ?), sen, and rin, with the coins being round and cast as in the West. The yen was legally defined as 0.78 troy ounces

Troy weight

Troy weight is a system of Physical units of mass customarily used for precious metals, black powder, and gemstones.Named after Troyes, France, the troy system of weights was known to exist in medieval times, at the celebrated fair at Troyes in North Eastern France....
(24.26 g) of pure silver, or 1.5 grams of pure gold. The same amount of silver is worth about 1181 modern yen, while the same amount of gold is worth about 4715 yen. The Act also moved Japan onto the gold standard

Gold standard

The gold standard is a monetary system in which a region's common media of exchange are paper notes that are normally freely convertible into pre-set, fixed quantities of gold....
. (The sen and the rin were eventually taken out of circulation at the end of 1953.)

Fixed value of the yen to the US dollar

The yen lost most of its value during and after World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a Participants in World War II, including all of the great powers, organised into two opposing military alliances: the Allies of World War II and the Axis powers....
. After a period of instability, in 1949, the value of the yen was fixed

Fixed exchange rate

A fixed exchange rate, sometimes called a pegged exchange rate, is a type of exchange rate regime wherein a currency's value is matched to the value of another single currency or to a basket of other currencies, or to another measure of value, such as gold standard....
at ¥360 per US$

United States dollar

The United States dollar is the unit of currency of the United States and was defined by the Coinage Act of 1792 to be between 371 and 416 grains of silver ....
1 through a United States plan, which was part of the Bretton Woods System

Bretton Woods system

The Bretton Woods system of money management established the rules for commerce and finance relations among the world's major developed country in the mid 20th century....
, to stabilize prices in the Japanese economy

Economy of Japan

The economy of Japan is the List of countries by GDP economy in the world, after the United States, at around US$4.5 Orders_of_magnitude_#1012 in terms of gross domestic product and third after the United States and China when adjusted for purchasing power parity....
. That exchange rate

Exchange rate

In finance, the exchange rates between two currency specifies how much one currency is worth in terms of the other. It is the value of a foreign nation?s currency in terms of the home nation?s currency....
was maintained until 1971, when the United States abandoned the gold standard

Gold standard

The gold standard is a monetary system in which a region's common media of exchange are paper notes that are normally freely convertible into pre-set, fixed quantities of gold....
, which had been a key element of the Bretton Woods System, and imposed a 10 percent surcharge on imports, setting in motion changes that eventually led to floating exchange rate

Floating exchange rate

A floating exchange rate or a flexible exchange rate is a type of exchange rate regime wherein a currency's value is allowed to fluctuate according to the foreign exchange market....
s in 1973.

Undervalued yen

By 1971 the yen had become undervalued. Japanese export

Export

Export goods or services are provided to foreign consumers by domestic Production theory basics. It is a good that is sent to another country for sale....
s were costing too little in international markets, and imports from abroad were costing the Japanese too much. This undervaluation was reflected in the current account balance, which had risen from the deficits of the early 1960s to a then-large surplus of U.S. $5.8 billion in 1971. The belief that the yen, and several other major currencies, were undervalued motivated the United States' actions in 1971.

Yen and major currencies float

Following the United States' measures to devalue the dollar in the summer of 1971, the Japanese government agreed to a new, fixed exchange rate as part of the Smithsonian Agreement

Smithsonian Agreement

The Smithsonian Agreement was a December 1971 agreement that ended the fixed exchange rates established at the Bretton Woods Conference of 1944....
, signed at the end of the year. This agreement set the exchange rate at ¥308 per US$1. However, the new fixed rates of the Smithsonian Agreement were difficult to maintain in the face of supply and demand pressures in the foreign-exchange market. In early 1973, the rates were abandoned, and the major nations of the world allowed their currencies to float.

Japanese government intervention in the currency market

In the 1970s, Japanese government and business people were very concerned that a rise in the value of the yen would hurt export growth by making Japanese products less competitive and would damage the industrial base. The government therefore continued to intervene heavily in foreign-exchange marketing (buying or selling dollars), even after the 1973 decision to allow the yen to float.

Despite intervention, market pressures caused the yen to continue climbing in value, peaking temporarily at an average of ¥271 per US$1 in 1973 before the impact of the 1973 oil crisis

1973 oil crisis

The 1973 oil crisis started on October 15, 1973, when the members of Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries or the OAPEC proclaimed an oil embargo "in response to the U.S....
was felt. The increased costs of imported oil

Petroleum

Petroleum or crude oil is a naturally occurring, flammable liquid found in rock formations in the Earth consisting of a complex mixture of hydrocarbons of various molecular weights, plus other organic compounds....
caused the yen to depreciate to a range of ¥290 to ¥300 between 1974 and 1976. The re-emergence of trade surpluses drove the yen back up to ¥211 in 1978. This currency strengthening was again reversed by the second oil shock in 1979

1979 energy crisis

The 1979 oil crisis in the United States occurred in the wake of the Iranian Revolution. Amid massive protests, the Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, fled his country in early 1979, allowing Ayatollah Khomeini to gain control....
, with the yen dropping to ¥227 by 1980.

Yen in the early 1980s

During the first half of the 1980s, the yen failed to rise in value even though current account surpluses returned and grew quickly. From ¥221 in 1981, the average value of the yen actually dropped to ¥239 in 1985. The rise in the current account surplus generated stronger demand for yen in foreign-exchange markets, but this trade-related demand for yen was offset by other factors. A wide differential in interest rates, with United States interest rates much higher than those in Japan, and the continuing moves to deregulate

Deregulation

Deregulation is a process by which governments remove, reduce or simplify restrictions on business and individuals. It is the removal of some governmental controls over a market....
the international flow of capital

Capital (economics)

In economics, capital or capital goods or real capital refers to factors of production used to create goods or services that are not themselves significantly consumed in the production process....
, led to a large net outflow of capital from Japan. This capital flow increased the supply of yen in foreign-exchange markets, as Japanese investors changed their yen for other currencies (mainly dollars) to invest overseas. This kept the yen weak relative to the dollar and fostered the rapid rise in the Japanese trade surplus that took place in the 1980s.

Effect of the Plaza Accord

In 1985 a dramatic change began. Finance officials from major nations signed an agreement (the Plaza Accord

Plaza Accord

The Plaza Accord or Plaza Agreement was an agreement signed on September 22, 1985 at the Plaza Hotel in New York City by 5 nations - France, West Germany, Japan, the United States and the United Kingdom....
) affirming that the dollar was overvalued (and, therefore, the yen undervalued). This agreement, and shifting supply and demand pressures in the markets, led to a rapid rise in the value of the yen. From its average of ¥239 per US$1 in 1985, the yen rose to a peak of ¥128 in 1988, virtually doubling its value relative to the dollar. After declining somewhat in 1989 and 1990, it reached a new high of ¥123 to US$1 in December 1992. In April 1995, the yen hit a peak of under 80 yen per dollar, temporarily making Japan's economy nearly the size of the US.

Post-bubble years

The yen declined during the Japanese asset price bubble

Japanese asset price bubble

The was an economic bubble in Japan from 1986 to 1990, in which real estate and stock prices greatly inflated. The bubble's collapse lasted for more than a decade with stock prices bottoming in 2003, until hitting an even lower low in 2008 amidst a global recession....
and continued to do so afterwards, reaching a low of ¥134 to US$1 in February 2002. The Bank of Japan

Bank of Japan

is the central bank of Japan....
's policy of zero interest rate

Interest rate

An interest rate is the price a borrower pays for the use of money they do not own, for instance a small company might borrow from a bank to kick start their business, and the return a lender receives for deferring the use of funds, by lending it to the borrower....
s has discouraged yen investments, with the carry trade of investors borrowing yen and investing in better-paying currencies (thus further pushing down the yen) estimated to be as large as $1 trillion. In February 2007, The Economist
The Economist

The Economist is an English-language weekly news and international relations publication owned by The Economist Newspaper Ltd. and edited in London....
estimated that the yen is 15% undervalued against the dollar and as much as 40% undervalued against the euro. As of February 10, 2008 the yen is a low 90 yen per U.S. Dollar. .

Coins

Coins were introduced in 1870. There were silver 5, 10, 20 and 50 sen and 1 yen, and gold 2, 5, 10 and 20 yen. Gold 1 yen were introduced in 1871, followed by copper 1 rin, ½, 1 and 2 sen in 1873.

Cupronickel

Cupronickel

Cupronickel or Coppernickel is an alloy of copper, nickel and strengthening impurities, such as iron and manganese. Cupronickel does not corrosion in seawater, because its electrode potential is adjusted to be neutral with regard to seawater....
5 sen coins were introduced in 1889. In 1897, the silver 1 yen coin was demonetized and the sizes of the gold coins were reduced by 50%, with 5, 10 and 20 yen coins issued. In 1920, cupro-nickel 10 sen coins were introduced.

Production of silver coins ceased in 1938, after which a variety of base metals were used to produce 1, 5 and 10 sen coins during the Second World War. Clay 5 and 10 sen coins were produced in 1945 but not issued for circulation.

After the war, brass 50 sen, 1 and 5 yen were introduced between 1946 and 1948. In 1949, the current type of holed 5 yen was introduced, followed by bronze 10 yen (of the type still in circulation) in 1951.

Coins in denominations of less than 1 yen became invalid on December 31, 1953, following enforcement of the .

In 1955, the current type of aluminium 1 yen was introduced, along with unholed, nickel 50 yen. In 1957, silver 100 yen pieces were introduced. These were replaced in 1967 by the current, cupro-nickel type, along with the holed 50 yen coin. In 1982, the first 500 yen coins were introduced.

The date (expressed as the year in the reign of the current emperor) is on the reverse of all coins, and, in most cases, country name

Names of Japan

The English language word Japan is not the name used for their country by the Japanese while speaking the Japanese language: it is an exonym. The Japanese language names for Japan are Nippon and Nihon ....
(through 1945, ??? or Dai Nippon, "Great Japan"; after 1945, ???, Nihon koku, "State of Japan") and the value in kanji is on the obverse, except for the present 5-yen coin where the country name is on the reverse.

As of December 29, 2008, 500 yen coins are the highest valued coins to be used regularly in the world (this place is typically taken by the 5 Cuban convertible peso

Cuban convertible peso

The convertible peso , is one of two official currencies in Cuba, the other being the Cuban peso. It has been in limited use since 1994, when it was treated as equivalent to the U.S....
coins), with values in the neighborhood of US$5.50, €3.90, £3.80 and CHF 5.80. The United States' largest-valued commonly-used coin (25¢

Quarter (United States coin)

A quarter dollar, commonly shortened to quarter, is a coin worth 1/4 of a United States United States dollar, or 25 Cent . The quarter has been produced since 1796....
) is worth ¥23; the Eurozone

Eurozone

The Eurozone is a currency union of 16 Member State of the European Union which have adopted the euro as their sole legal tender. It currently consists of Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Republic of Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia and Spain....
's largest (€2

2 euro coins

Image:2e comm.png|Common side of all ?2 coins minted before 2007Image:EUR 2 .png|Common side of all ?2 coins minted from 2007 onwards...
) is worth ¥255; the United Kingdom's

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom , the UK or Britain,is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe....
largest (£2) is worth ¥260; and Switzerland

Switzerland

Switzerland is a landlocked Swiss Alps country of roughly 7.7 million people in Western Europe with an area of 41,285 km?. Switzerland is a federal republic consisting of 26 states called Cantons of Switzerland....
's largest (CHF 5

Swiss franc

The franc is the currency and legal tender of Switzerland and Liechtenstein; it is also legal tender in the Italian Enclave and exclave Campione d'Italia....
) is worth ¥430. Because of this high face value, the 500 yen has been a favorite target for counterfeiters. It was counterfeited to such an extent that in 2000 a new series of coins was issued with various security features. In spite of these changes, however, counterfeiting continues.

The 1 yen coin is made out of 100% aluminum.

On various occasions, commemorative coins are minted, often using gold and silver with face values as high as 100,000 yen. The first of these were silver ¥100 and ¥1000 Summer Olympic coins

Summer Olympic coins

Although the first Olympic coin can be traced back to 480 BC, the modern Olympic Games did not see its first Commemorative coin until 1951. The original concept of Olympic coins was that the Greeks believed that coins brought the general public closer to the Olympic games....
issued for the 1964 games. Even though they can be used, they are treated as collectibles and normally do not circulate.

Instead of displaying the A.D. year of mintage like most nations' coins, yen coins instead display the year of the current emperor's reign

Japanese era name

The Japanese era calendar scheme is a common calendar scheme used in Japan, which identifies a year by the combination of the and the year number within the era....
. For example, a coin minted in 2006 would bear the date Heisei

Heisei

is the current Japanese era name in Japan. The Heisei era started on January 8, 1989, just one day after the death of the reigning Emperor, Hirohito....
18 (the 18th year of Emperor Akihito

Akihito

is the current of Japan, and the 125th Emperor according to Japan's list of Emperors of Japan. He acceded to the throne in 1989, and is the List of longest reigning current monarchs monarch or lifelong leader....
's reign).

Currently circulating coins
Image	Value	Technical parameters				Description			Date of first minting
Image	Value	Diameter	Thickness	Mass	Composition	Edge	Obverse	Reverse	Date of first minting
	¥1	20 mm	1.2 mm	1 g	100% aluminium Aluminium Aluminium or aluminum is a silvery white and ductile member of the boron group of chemical elements. It has the symbol Al; its atomic number is 13....	Smooth	Young tree, state title, value	Value, year of minting	1955
	¥5 5 yen coin The is one denomination of Japanese yen. The current design was first minted in 1959 using Japanese characters known as the "new script", and were also minted from 1949-1958 using "old-script" Japanese characters....	22 mm	1.5 mm	3.75 g	60–70% copper Copper Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu and atomic number 29.It is a ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity.... 30–40% zinc Zinc Zinc is a metallic chemical element with the symbol Zn and atomic number 30. It is a first-row transition metal of the group 12 element of the periodic table....	Smooth	Ear of Rice, gear, water, value	State title, year of minting	1949
	¥10 10 yen coin The is one denomination of Japanese yen.The obverse of the coin depicts the Phoenix Hall of Byodo-in, a Buddhism temple in Uji, Kyoto prefecture, with the kanji for "Japan" and "Ten Yen." The reverse shows the numerals "10" and the date of issue in kanji surrounded by bay laurel leaves....	23.5 mm	1.5 mm	4.5 g	95% copper Copper Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu and atomic number 29.It is a ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity.... 3–4% zinc Zinc Zinc is a metallic chemical element with the symbol Zn and atomic number 30. It is a first-row transition metal of the group 12 element of the periodic table.... 1–2% tin Tin Tin is a chemical element with the symbol Sn and atomic number 50. Tin is obtained chiefly from the mineral cassiterite, where it occurs as an oxide, SnO2....	Milled	Hoodo Temple, Byodo-in Byodo-in is a Buddhism temple in the city of Uji, Kyoto in Kyoto Prefecture, Japan. It is jointly a temple of the Jodo Shu and Tendai sects.... , state title, value	Evergreen tree, value, year of minting	1951
		23.5 mm	1.5 mm	4.5 g		Smooth		Evergreen tree, value, year of minting	1959
	¥50	21 mm	1.7 mm	4 g	Cupronickel Cupronickel Cupronickel or Coppernickel is an alloy of copper, nickel and strengthening impurities, such as iron and manganese. Cupronickel does not corrosion in seawater, because its electrode potential is adjusted to be neutral with regard to seawater.... 75% copper Copper Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu and atomic number 29.It is a ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity.... 25% nickel Nickel Nickel is a chemical element, with the chemical symbol Ni and atomic number 28. It is a silvery-white lustrous metal with a slight golden tinge....	Milled	Chrysanthemum Chrysanthemum Chrysanthemums, often called 'mums', are a genus of about 30 species of perennial plant flowering plants in the family Asteraceae, native to Asia and northeastern Europe.... , state title, value	Value, year of minting	1967
	¥100	22.6 mm	1.7 mm	4.8 g	Cupronickel Cupronickel Cupronickel or Coppernickel is an alloy of copper, nickel and strengthening impurities, such as iron and manganese. Cupronickel does not corrosion in seawater, because its electrode potential is adjusted to be neutral with regard to seawater.... 75% copper Copper Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu and atomic number 29.It is a ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity.... 25% nickel Nickel Nickel is a chemical element, with the chemical symbol Ni and atomic number 28. It is a silvery-white lustrous metal with a slight golden tinge....	Milled	Cherry blossoms, state title, value	Value, year of minting	1967
	¥500 500 yen coin The is the largest coin denomination of the Japanese yen. Depending on fluctuations in exchange rates it is often, after the Cuban 5 Cuban convertible peso coin, the second highest valued regularly used coin in the world, valued at US$5.17, ?4.1, and ?3.44 as of November 2008....	26.5 mm	2 mm	7.2 g	Cupronickel Cupronickel Cupronickel or Coppernickel is an alloy of copper, nickel and strengthening impurities, such as iron and manganese. Cupronickel does not corrosion in seawater, because its electrode potential is adjusted to be neutral with regard to seawater.... 75% copper Copper Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu and atomic number 29.It is a ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity.... 25% nickel Nickel Nickel is a chemical element, with the chemical symbol Ni and atomic number 28. It is a silvery-white lustrous metal with a slight golden tinge....	Smooth with lettering ("NIPPON ? 500 ? NIPPON ? 500 ?")	Paulownia Paulownia *Paulownia* is a genus of between 6?17 species of plants in the monogeneric family Paulowniaceae, related to and sometimes included in the Scrophulariaceae.... , state title, value	Value, bamboo Bamboo The bamboos are a group of woody perennial plant evergreen plants in the true grass family Poaceae, subfamily Bambusoideae, tribe Bambuseae.... , Mandarin orange Mandarin orange The Mandarin orange or mandarin is a small citrus tree with fruit resembling the Orange . The fruit is Spheroid, rather than Sphere. Mandarin oranges are usually eaten plain, or in fruit salads.... , year of minting	1982
		26.5 mm	2 mm	7 g	72% copper Copper Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu and atomic number 29.It is a ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity.... 20% zinc Zinc Zinc is a metallic chemical element with the symbol Zn and atomic number 30. It is a first-row transition metal of the group 12 element of the periodic table.... 8% nickel	Reeded slantingly		Value, bamboo Bamboo The bamboos are a group of woody perennial plant evergreen plants in the true grass family Poaceae, subfamily Bambusoideae, tribe Bambuseae.... , Mandarin orange Mandarin orange The Mandarin orange or mandarin is a small citrus tree with fruit resembling the Orange . The fruit is Spheroid, rather than Sphere. Mandarin oranges are usually eaten plain, or in fruit salads.... , year of minting, latent image	2000

Banknotes

The issuance of the yen banknotes began in 1872, two years after the currency was introduced. Throughout its history, the denominations have ranged from 10 yen to 10000 yen.

Before and during World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a Participants in World War II, including all of the great powers, organised into two opposing military alliances: the Allies of World War II and the Axis powers....
, various bodies issued banknotes in yen, such as the Ministry of Finance and the Imperial Japanese National Bank. The Allied forces also issued some notes shortly after the war. Since then, the Bank of Japan

Bank of Japan

is the central bank of Japan....
has been the exclusive note issuing authority. The bank has issued five series after World War II. Series E, the current series, consists of ¥1000, ¥2000, ¥5000, and ¥10,000.

Determinants of value

Beginning in December 1931, Japan gradually shifted from the gold standard system to the managed currency system.

The relative value

Relative value

Relative value is the attractiveness measured in terms of Financial risk, Market liquidity, and Rate of return of one instrument relative to another, or for a given instrument, of one maturity relative to another....
of the yen is determined in foreign exchange market

Foreign exchange market

The foreign exchange market market is where currency trading takes place. It is where banks and other official institutions facilitate the buying and selling of foreign currencies....
s by the economic forces

Economics

File:Ballard Farmers' Market - vegetables.jpgEconomics is the Social sciences that studies the Production theory basics, Distribution , and Consumption of Good and Service ....
of supply and demand

Supply and demand

...
. The supply

Supply

supply is the amount of good or services a business providesSupply may refer to:*Supply and demand theory*Confidence and supply#Supply for a Government budget, in the Westminster System...
of the yen in the market

Market

A market is any one of a variety of different systems, institutions, procedures, social relations and infrastructures whereby persons trade, and goods and services are exchanged, forming part of the economy....
is governed by the desire of yen holders to exchange their yen for other currencies to purchase goods, services, or asset

Asset

In business and accounting, assets are everything of value that is owned by a person or company. It is a claim on the property your income of a borrower....
s. The demand

Demand

Economics*Demand ,the desire to own something and the ability to pay for it*Demand curve,a graphic representation of a demand schedule *Demand deposit, the money in checking accounts...
for the yen is governed by the desire of foreigners to buy goods and services in Japan and by their interest in investing

Investing

In economics, investing is the active redirecting resources from being consumed today so that they may create benefits in the future; the use of assets to earn income or profit.Investing is the process of making an investment in order to earn a profit, for example equity investment either through a fund, a 401k plan, or individually....
in Japan (buying yen-denominated real and financial assets).

Since the 1990s, the Bank of Japan, the country's central bank, has kept interest rates low in order to spur economic growth. Short-term lending rates have responded to this monetary relaxation and fell from 3.7% to 1.3% between 1993 and 2008. Low interest rates combined with a ready liquidity for the Yen prompted investors to borrow money in Japan and invest it in other countries (a practice known as carry trade). This has helped to keep the value of the Yen low compared to other currencies.

International reserve currency

Historical exchange rate

The table below shows the number of yen per U.S. dollar

United States dollar

The United States dollar is the unit of currency of the United States and was defined by the Coinage Act of 1792 to be between 371 and 416 grains of silver ....
. (monthly average) Source:

Year	Month
Year	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec
1949–71	360
1972	308
1973	301.15	270.00	265.83	265.50	264.95	265.30	263.45	265.30	265.70	266.68	279.00	280.00
1974	299.00	287.60	276.00	279.75	281.90	284.10	297.80	302.70	298.50	299.85	300.10	300.95
1975	297.85	286.60	293.80	293.30	291.35	296.35	297.35	297.90	302.70	301.80	303.00	305.15
1976	303.70	302.25	299.70	299.40	299.95	297.40	293.40	288.76	287.30	293.70	296.45	293.00
1977	288.25	283.25	277.30	277.50	277.30	266.50	266.30	267.43	264.50	250.65	244.20	240.00
1978	241.74	238.83	223.40	223.90	223.15	204.50	190.80	190.00	189.15	176.05	197.80	195.10
1979	201.40	202.35	209.30	219.15	219.70	217.00	216.90	220.05	223.45	237.80	249.50	239.90
1980	238.80	249.80	249.70	238.30	224.40	218.15	226.85	219.20	212.00	211.75	216.75	203.60
1981	205.20	208.85	211.40	215.00	223.50	225.75	239.75	228.75	231.55	233.35	214.15	220.25
1982	228.45	235.20	248.30	236.30	243.70	255.55	256.65	259.60	269.40	277.40	253.45	235.30
1983	238.40	235.55	239.30	237.70	238.60	239.80	241.50	246.75	236.10	233.65	234.20	232.00
1984	234.74	233.28	224.75	226.30	231.63	237.45	245.45	241.70	245.40	245.30	246.50	251.58
1985	254.78	259.00	250.70	251.40	251.78	248.95	236.65	237.10	216.00	211.80	202.05	200.60
1986	192.65	180.45	179.65	168.10	172.05	163.95	154.15	156.05	153.63	161.45	162.20	160.10
1987	152.30	153.15	145.65	139.65	144.15	146.75	149.25	142.35	146.35	138.55	132.45	122.00
1988	127.18	128.12	124.50	124.82	124.80	132.20	132.53	134.97	134.30	125.00	121.85	125.90
1989	129.13	127.15	132.55	132.49	142.70	143.95	138.40	144.28	139.35	142.15	142.90	143.40
1990	144.40	148.52	157.65	159.08	151.75	152.85	147.50	144.50	137.95	129.35	132.75	135.40
1991	131.40	131.95	140.55	137.42	137.97	138.15	137.83	136.88	132.95	131.00	130.07	125.25
1992	125.78	129.33	133.05	133.38	128.33	125.55	127.30	123.42	119.25	123.35	124.75	124.65
1993	124.30	117.85	115.35	111.10	107.45	106.51	105.60	104.18	105.10	108.23	108.82	111.89
1994	109.55	104.30	102.80	102.38	104.38	98.95	99.93	99.57	98.59	97.37	98.98	99.83
1995	98.58	96.93	88.38	83.77	83.19	84.77	88.17	97.46	98.18	101.90	101.66	102.91
1996	106.92	104.58	106.49	104.29	108.37	109.88	107.13	108.40	111.45	113.27	113.44	115.98
1997	122.13	120.88	123.97	126.92	116.43	114.30	117.74	119.39	121.44	120.29	127.66	129.92
1998	127.34	126.72	133.39	131.95	138.72	139.95	143.79	141.52	135.72	116.09	123.83	115.20
1999	115.98	120.32	119.99	119.59	121.37	120.87	115.27	110.19	105.66	104.89	102.42	102.08
2000	106.90	110.27	105.29	106.44	107.30	105.40	109.52	106.43	107.75	108.81	111.07	114.90
2001	116.38	116.44	125.27	124.06	119.06	124.27	124.79	118.92	119.29	121.84	123.98	131.47
2002	132.94	133.89	132.71	127.97	123.96	119.22	119.82	117.97	121.79	122.48	122.44	119.37
2003	119.21	117.75	119.02	119.46	118.63	119.82	120.11	117.13	110.48	108.99	109.34	106.97
2004	105.88	109.08	103.95	110.44	109.56	108.69	111.67	109.86	110.92	105.87	103.17	103.78
2005	103.58	104.58	106.97	105.87	108.17	110.37	112.18	111.42	113.28	115.67	119.46	117.48
2006	117.18	116.35	117.47	114.32	111.85	114.66	114.47	117.23	117.91	118.01	117.23	115.57
2007	120.59	120.49	117.29	118.81	120.77	122.64	121.56	116.74	115.01	115.77	111.24	112.28
2008	107.60	107.18	100.83	102.41	104.11	106.86	106.76	109.24	106.71	100.20	95.01	90.28

Japanese yen

Pronunciation and etymology

History

Introduction

Fixed value of the yen to the US dollar

Undervalued yen

Yen and major currencies float

Japanese government intervention in the currency market

Yen in the early 1980s

Effect of the Plaza Accord

Post-bubble years

Coins

Banknotes

Determinants of value

International reserve currency

Historical exchange rate

See also

External links

German