What's the purpose of the Japanese one yen coin when it has a value of $0.0089 in U.S. dollars? It's value is worse than our penny.
Take a look at this link: https://www.globalexchange.es/en/currencies-of-the-world/yen. The attempt at equating the two currencies like this is the same as trying to make literal translations from Spanish into English: it just doesn't work well. When I was in Japan in 2014 the rate was 100 yen to one USD. The exchange rate is even more favorable now than it was then for visitors from the United States and other countries with strong currencies but the yen is still considered valuable as well as stable overall. By the way, your use of "it's" should be "its" as using "its" in the possessive context is the same as writing "his", "hers" or "theirs". Please keep this in mind as correctly using "its" and "it's" will make you appear to be a stronger and more credible writer.
I stumble on correct usage of the apostrophe myself...and intend (some fine day) to abandon its use entirely...as many young folks do now. How'm I doin'? wlw
What an odd question. What it is used for is making change. Its relative value to the US dollar is irrelevant to its status as a circulating coin. If you wish to query a government on its monetary system and/or plans to reform perhaps not phrasing it as a question relative to the US dollar might be more productive.
Ah, I see. Well, not much--I mean what can you buy for a cent, nickel, dime, or quarter these days either? Same for the 1 yen through 10 yen. Now, when you get to your 100 yens there is something called the 100 yen store...and there is a 500 yen coin too. The 50, 100, and 500 do have practicality, and IIRC it was only the 1,5, and possibly 10 yen coin that didn't work in a vending machine. It's been a few years so the memory is vague. In any case, just like there is tax on a Dollar Store purchase, there are increments that need to be made under 100 yen. So, change coins needed until such a time as rounding occurs or physical money disappears completely. Would the US/Japan benefit from losing the cent/yen or nickel/5 yen? People (and governments) don't seem ready to give those up yet. Now, the fractionals--50 sen and under, 1/2 cent coin certainly made it to obsolete status. So who knows.
An inquiry at the Japan Mint might result in a reply. I only say this because I once asked a question there about how many South Korean Mint employees had received training in Japan in the 1960s.... and I received an informative answer from them! They're quite responsive, I found. I have seen in an online interview with US Mint Director, Ed Moy, who once said that the One Cent coin is still used in the USA because "our customers still want it in circulation." Does dropping the Cent require an act of congress in the USA? Or is that a call that the Treasury or Mint can make? I wonder the same about Japan. I haven't yet heard of an official answer from Japanese officials for the continued use of the One-Yen coin. I wonder what the reason the Japan Mint might give for continuing the circulation of this, their lowest-value coin? Is it for the purpose of making exact change, like some here have said? Or does dropping it also require legislation?
It's the wording that I find it very unpleasant. Read it again and if I word it exactly the same way of why some countries use the lowest denomination coin compared to the US dollar - you aren't going to win a lot of friends. Despite what many would want to think of Japan - Japan is somewhat stubborn when it comes to hard cash. With negative interest rates and a huge aging population that are used to cold hard cash, cash is still king over there. 1 yen does hold some importance - school children still use 1 yen coins as weights as 1 yen is 1.0 gram. 100 of these would make it a perfect 100g scale and so forth. Mintage of the 1 yen coin have been struck on "as required" basis, there were some years where 1 yen coins were not struck - believe the cost of producing 1 yen coin cost more than 3 yen. This is offset with the production of higher denomination coin, in particular the 100 and 500 yen coin.
Why does the U.S. still make the 1 cent coin when it's only worth £0.0077 or €0.0089? I mean, come on! I would need 1.3¢ to make a 1p purchase in England!
I have heard that the modern 1 Yen Japanese coins are one of the few coins that can float on water if placed gently. They are aluminum and, as said, weigh only 1 gram. The Japanese Mint does a great job on the proof minting of these to bring out the aluminum shine. Though I haven't visited Japan, I have heard somewhere, maybe on a video or a blog, that many people in Japan have little piles of 1 Yen coins that accumulate from pocket change and some have a ritual of cashing them in at banks when the pile gets large enough. I did the same with US cents back when I used more cash. This video will be coin heresy to some, but it's interesting:
That video is cool. Somewhere there are pictures of unofficial Vietnamese cash floating on water from a collector who wanted to see if they really floated. The nickname for them is "floaters" because they were so thin and porous that they would float on water, as compared to good coins which would sink.
Here's a chart created by nippon.com on the production (yellow vertical bars) and circulation (red line) up to 2017 of the One-Yen coin!