A Guide To Japanese Money

A Guide To Japanese Money

Here is some Japanese money. If you've never been to Japan before it may not seem like real money to you and you're more likely to let it pass through your hands more quickly--best to resist that temptation.
For the most current exchange rates, go to Oanda or to Xenon. Note that there are slight differences for the exchanges in New York, London, and Tokyo.

Japanese Coins

From the left, there is the aluminum one yen coin, which costs more to make than it's worth, then the 5, 10, 50, 100, and 500 yen coins. Vending machines accept all coins except the ones and fives, as well as 1000 yen bills. However, recently some machines may have disallowed use of the 500 yen coins due to some nefarious types using altered Korean coins to trick the machines. Pay phones take only 10 and 100 yen coins, or pre-paid phone cards.



And now here is something you don't see much. In 2000 for the Okinawa Summit this 2000 yen note was introduced, along with a year 2000 special 500 yen coin.
But there wasn't much acceptance for the new bill. Vending machines won't take it and the public doesn't feel any real need for it.