New banknotes

Japan’s currency is probably the most valuable in the region and as a consequence, counterfeiting has gone up in recent years. The National Police Agency reported a 25-times increase in forgeries over the past five years. They expect to recover 30,000 fake bills this year.
So the Bank of Japan launched an anti-counterfeiting measure and released new banknotes on November 1st. I spotted one “in the wild” yesterday.
The 5,000 yen note features a new face, 19th century novelist Ichiyo Higuchi. She was a pioneer feminist writer. I haven’t ever read her work, but I guess I ought to.
There are, of course, all sorts of new measures to foil counterfeiters and you can read about them on the Bank of Japan’s About Money pages.
And so I don’t forget in a few months when most of the old bills are gone, the old 5000 yen notes look like this: