The year-end balance of bank notes in circulation in Japan is estimated at ¥120.6 trillion ($770.9 billion), falling for a third straight year amid the rise of cashless payments, according to Bank of Japan data released Tuesday.
A stack of ¥10,000 bills equivalent to this amount would be 1,206 kilometers high — about 319 times the height of Mount Fuji, Japan’s tallest peak, at 3,776 meters.
The balance of bank notes in circulation is the total value of bank notes held at homes, in corporate vaults and elsewhere.
Just over 7 billion of new notes, which were issued from July 2024, have been circulated, accounting for 42.8% of the total in use. However, the pace of penetration is slow compared with the previous series of new notes introduced in 2004, which accounted for nearly 70% in the same period.
In Japan, there had been a strong preference for cash for many years, but the balance of bank notes in circulation declined for the first time in 14 years at the end of 2023.
Meanwhile, the proportion of cashless payments, such as credit cards and electronic money, exceeded 50% of personal consumption in 2024, excluding imputed rent for owner-occupied houses, according to statistics from the industry ministry.
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