Japan yen coins & bills complete guide 2026 — 6 coins, 4 bills, when to use each

Japanese yen comes in 6 coins + 4 bills = 10 denominations total. Tourists routinely mix up ¥1 and ¥5, get scowled at for breaking a ¥10,000 note, and have no idea how to tell the new (2024) bills from the old ones. This one-pager organizes look, material, use-case, and old-vs-new in a single sweep.

TL;DR — coins & bills at a glance

Coins (6 types)

Bills (4 types)

1. Coins — when to use each of the 6

¥1 (aluminum)

• Used for saisen (shrine/temple offerings)
• Rarely accepted by vending machines or ticket machines
• Weighs 1g, floats on water
• Piles up fast in a tourist's wallet (constantly given as change)

¥5 (brass, with hole)

• "Go-en" (a homophone for "good fortune/connection") — the lucky coin for saisen
• The center hole is a Meiji-era anti-counterfeit / circulation legacy
• Sometimes rejected by vending and ticket machines

¥10 (bronze)

• Features Byōdōin Phoenix Hall (Kyoto, UNESCO World Heritage)
• Used in pay phones and public bathhouses (sentō)
• Accepted by vending machines

¥50 (cupronickel, with hole)

• Hole in the center (to distinguish from ¥5)
• Silver-colored, cupronickel
• Accepted by vending machines

¥100 (cupronickel)

• The single most important coin for tourists
• Heavily used in vending machines, coin lockers, and laundromats
• Often used in place of a ¥500 coin

¥500 (bicolor, 2021 redesign)

• One of the highest-value coins in the world (about $3.5)
• Switched to a two-tone gold + silver design in 2021
• Older single-tone ¥500 coins still circulate — both are valid

2. Bills — when to use each of the 4

¥1,000

• The bill tourists use most often
• Convenience stores, taxis, ramen shops — all fine
• Fully accepted by vending machines

¥2,000

• Extremely rare in circulation — many Japanese have never seen one
• Occasionally seen in Okinawa (issued for the 2000 Okinawa Summit)
• Not accepted by most vending machines
• Tourists are better off not carrying it

¥5,000

• Purple, the go-to bill for mid-size transactions
• Perfect fit for a restaurant tab (¥3,000-5,000)
• Many vending machines accept it, but it depends on the model

¥10,000

• Brown (old) / dark blue (new, 2024-)
• Largest denomination and the default unit ATMs dispense
• Small shops and street stalls will refuse it ("no change")
• Fine at convenience stores, taxis, and ramen shops

3. The new bills (issued July 2024) — what changed

Changes

• Portrait redesign (Noguchi → Kitasato, etc.)
• 3D hologram (world-first technology)
• High-resolution watermarks (finer detail)
• Tactile marks (accessibility for the visually impaired)

Old bills still work

Old bills remain legal tender indefinitely. No need to exchange them.

→ #14 How to spend leftover yen

Vending and ticket machine support

• Large-scale replacement was completed in 2024-2025
• Older vending machines (10+ years) may not accept the new bills
• All machines at stations, convenience stores, and major tourist spots are updated

4. ATM withdrawal denominations

Seven Bank ATM

• Specify in ¥1,000 increments (minimum ¥1,000)
• Default dispense is ¥10,000 notes
• To get ¥1,000 notes: pick "¥1,000 increments" on screen

Example withdrawal combinations

→ For more small bills, withdraw in ¥9,000 or ¥3,000 amounts.

5. Coin weight — the burden on your trip

Weight of one full set (one of each ¥1-¥500)

About 23g. One set = ¥666.

Typical coin accumulation during a trip

Number to remember: a typical 1-week trip leaves you with 500g of coins. That goes straight into your suitcase weight.

Tricks to shed coins

1. At a convenience store, ask "¥1,000 all in coins" and spend them (slows the register, though)
2. Spend at vending machines and coin lockers
3. Load coins onto a prepaid IC card (Suica/Pasmo)
4. Drop them in donation boxes or temple/shrine offering boxes
5. Airport charity (UNICEF) donation boxes

→ #35 Coin and change at the airport / #14 How to spend leftover yen

6. Authenticity check (for tourists)

Counterfeit yen bills and coins are essentially non-existent. Ministry of Finance data puts it below one in a million. The odds a tourist gets passed a fake are basically zero.

If you ever do receive a suspicious bill

• Feels smooth, not textured → possibly fake
• No visible watermark (face portrait) → possibly fake
• Hologram doesn't shift (new bills only) → possibly fake

→ Return it to the shop that gave it to you, or report to police. A vanishingly rare scenario with no real-world damage.

7. Coins and bills in English / Chinese / Korean

8. Scenes where breaking a ¥10,000 note is unwelcome

Small shops and street stalls

• A food stall (takoyaki etc., ¥500-800) will refuse a ¥10,000 — "no change"
• A family-run old shop may tell you "go get change first"
• In a taxi (starting fare ¥500), a ¥10,000 leaves the driver in a bind

How to avoid it

• Always keep 5-10 ¥1,000 notes on hand
• Pre-break at a convenience store: pay for a ¥3,000 purchase with ¥10,000 → get ¥7,000 back, mostly in ¥1,000 notes
• Apple Pay / Suica fully covers small payments

FAQ

Q: Are there shops that refuse ¥1 coins?

A: Basically no. Some old vending machines may not accept them.

Q: I have a ¥2,000 bill but can't use it — can I exchange it?

A: A bank will swap it for two ¥1,000 notes. A trip to Okinawa is a chance to actually spend it.

Q: Can I use both the old (single-tone) and new (bicolor) ¥500 coins?

A: Both are valid. No need to exchange.

Q: Where can I exchange foreign currency for yen in Japan?

A: WCS (World Currency Shop) gets closest to the mid-market rate. Airport Travelex runs -7 to -10%.

→ #102 Shinjuku money guide / #101 Shibuya money guide

Q: What do I do with leftover yen when I leave?

A: Three options:

1. Hold onto it for your next Japan trip (valid indefinitely)
2. Reverse-exchange at the airport Travelex (eat -7 to -10%)
3. Deposit into your Wise account and convert back to USD etc. (-0.5%, the best deal)

→ #14 How to spend leftover yen

Q: What's a lucky amount for saisen (shrine offering)?

A: ¥5 (go-en, "good connection") is the classic. ¥45 (shiju go-en, "forever good connection") and ¥55 (gojū no go-en, "five-fold connection") are also popular wordplay. ¥10 is said to mean "distant ties (toen)" and is unlucky to some (though it's mostly overthinking).

Related articles

Cash basics

• #13 How much cash should you bring to Japan
• #14 How to spend leftover yen
• #35 Coin and change at the airport

Pre-departure prep

• #186 Pre-departure money checklist
• #189 Packing list
• #190 Airport arrival 30-min setup

Exchange

• #5 Exchange before departure or after arrival?
• #11 Bank vs airport rate compared

Last verified: 2026-05-22. Bill/coin validity and circulation per Ministry of Finance and Bank of Japan official sources.