Japan launches banknotes with hologram portraits

Existing bills will stay in use, but train stations, parking lots and ramen shops are scrambling to upgrade payment machines as the government pushes consumers and businesses to use less cash in its bid to digitise the economy

A sample of a new 10,000 Yen banknote displayed under a light to demonstrate how it differs from a forgery at the currency museum of the Bank of Japan. Picture: REUTERS/Issei Kato

Japan began circulating its first new banknotes in 20 years on Wednesday, featuring three-dimensional portraits of the founders of financial and female education institutions in an attempt to frustrate counterfeiters.

The notes use printed patterns to generate holograms of the portraits facing different directions, depending on the angle of view, employing a technology that Japan's National Printing Bureau says is the world's first for paper money.