Following up from posts on the 1000 Yen banknote and the 2000 Yen banknote, here is the 5000 Japanese Yen banknote. Worth $45.39 US as of this moment, this note circulates widely in Japan and its high usage and larger denomination means that it's scattered with even more anti-counterfeit devices than the 1000 Yen note. 日本銀行券 (Nipponginkōken) - Bank of Japan banknote 五千円 (go sen'en) - 5000 Yen 日本銀行 (Nipponginkō) - Bank of Japan 樋口一葉 Higuchi Ichiyō- Meiji Period writer - she lived for only 24 years but her short stories remain among the most famous in Japan and many have been made into movies 国立印刷局製造 (Kokuritsu insatsu-kyoku seizō) - Manufactured by the National Bureau of Printing - this is very tiny printing on front bottom center left Like many modern Japanese notes, counterfeiters will also have a very difficult time faking the 5000 Yen note. Here are just a few of the devices used. As with other Japanese notes, the beautiful watermark is almost photographic in its minute detail. A hologram (placed on the note like a sticker) changes form from different angles. When held up to light, the right side of the note shows two vertical bars (the 1000 Yen note shows only 1 such bar). As with the other denominations, microprinting appears all over both sides of the bill as well as raised and textured ink. The red seals and a few other features on both sides glow under UV light and latent images change text when observed from various angles. The small black octagons on front extreme left and right allow the visually impaired to differentiate between denominations. Like the 1000 Yen posted earlier, this note also belongs to Series-E and was first issued in 2004. It also does not display a specific year, but the color of the serial numbers changes from issue to issue or when an issue runs out of serial numbers. The Japan Printing Bureau site does not differentiate serial number colors for Series-E 5000 Yen notes, so presumably they are still in their first issue? The serial number on this note looks brownish. Their site also says that the lifespan of 5000 and 1000 Yen notes is about one to two years, so they apparently don't feel a need to show an explicit date on these banknotes.
Nice article and great photos, Ed. I somehow didn't get hold of a 5,000 yen during my Japan trip a few months ago. Only got 10,000 and 1,000 yen. Great to know more about other denominations.
Ed: Thank you for this write-up. I have one minor pedantic observation. Sorry. You mis-named the note's denomination at the beginning. It is go-sen-en or 5,000 not the sen en (1,000) you posted. My favorite note is still the 2,000 yen. I had one given to me in change on the Kumano Kodo. Foolish me I used it to pay the takkyubin who transported my bags to the next ryokan. I hope you enjoyed your trip.
Thank you for catching that typo. I had copy and pasted some of that text from the 1000 Yen post and I swear that I had fixed that, but I think I only put the Kanji for "Go" in place and forgot the transliteration. Oh well. I fixed it now. Thank you! So the 2000 Yen still circulates? I heard that they are never to almost never seen anymore, but you've apparently seen one relatively recently. Interesting or とても面白いです! The Kumano Kodo must have been interesting enough all in itself.
