New note

"Enhanced convenience for visually impaired people"? I'm all for that! That's where the US lags so far behind nearly every country. At least Japan's currency comes in different widths. All US notes are exactly the same size. Why don't the U.S. Mint change that?

John- Jpn has always had braille in notes for the visually impaired, not just different size bills. No idea what this enhancement is, tho. (They don't have the actual braille per se, but a kind of thing in the weave you can feel if you know where to look…)

Why has Japan avoided placing a 'foil hologram ban' through their bills. Australia for ages and now Canada in the last few years has their 'window panel' plastic bills with holograms which make counterfeiting near impossible. I was surprised to find that the U.S. (on my last visit) had started with a 'plastic hologram band' running down the middle of the $100 note from top to bottom.

I guess Japan still doesn't see the need to make their money hard to copy or maybe it's tradition (or stubbornness) that prevents them from doing so kind of how the U.S. held out for so long until recently on changing their bills. Then there's the conspiracy theories as to why but that's for another whole other story... ;)

I guess Japan still doesn't see the need to make their money hard to copy or maybe it's tradition (or stubbornness) that prevents them from doing so kind of how the U.S. held out for so long until recently on changing their bills. Then there's the conspiracy theories as to why but that's for another whole other story... ;)

Paragraph 6

http://www.npb.go.jp/ja/intro/tokutyou/index.html

Sigh

Mice will always find away around the perfect mouse trap. There is no such thing as a high-tech anti-anything in this world. There is just a false sense of security.

The paper currency of Japan are to me, amongst the most beautiful of any in the world. But despite the most effective security printing methods with the layering of overt and covert features including the use of watermark, optical variable ink, and the intaglio printing process for banknotes, counterfeit will never be eliminated even though some may assume that it is logical that the more techniques used in a document, the more secure it will be. The bigger issue is not counterfeit prevention but instead it is in the minds of the people. They would have to improve public education, create effective law enforcement, and relieve extreme poverty so that counterfeit does not have to take place. In other words our society will have to improve so more people get success focused.

Here is a link to an interactive graphic (in English) by the Japanese National Printing Bureau of the anti-counterfeiting features of a 10,000 yen note: http://www.npb.go.jp/en/intro/gizou/e.html

There is a lot of other interesting information on the NPB's very well-designed website in English and Japanese (thank you for the link @nigelboy).