Japan's New High-Tech Yen Notes To Deter Counterfeiting

Japan's new banknotes -- the first updates since 2004 -- entered circulation recently, featuring the world's first high-resolution holograms for paper currency, Yuhi Sugiyama reported for Mainichi Shimbun.

This marks the first time advanced 3D hologram technology has been used to prevent currency counterfeiting.

During a visit to the National Printing Bureau's Tokyo Plant in June, the printing of the new banknotes was in its final stages. Massive machines were producing sheets of 20 new banknotes each, printing one side at a time.

The 10,000-yen (about $62) note features a portrait of Eiichi Shibusawa, known as the "father of Japanese capitalism."

The 5,000-yen note carries Umeko Tsuda, the founder of Tsuda University, and the 1,000-yen note Shibasaburo Kitasato (sometimes rendered as Kitazato), a bacteriologist who discovered a treatment for tetanus.

Five hundred sheets of freshly printed currency are precisely cut into individual banknotes by staff using cutting machines, creating 10,000 new notes at a time. But the most notable thing about the new banknotes happens during the preceding process.

A dedicated machine takes in the printed sheets and, at very high speed, applies 3D holographic films to the front sides -- the first time advanced 3D hologram technology has been used to prevent currency counterfeiting.