OUGD406
Studio Brief 02
Research

I found it necessary to research into the current Japanese Yen design to see its general denominations and the history behind the currency. Firstly the Japanese Yen has been in production since 1870s, the Yen literally meaning "circle" or "round object" and from early research into the Yen I found out that Japan is mainly a cash based society, meaning that most everyday transactions such as credit card, check and as of recently Apple pay aren't commonly used, therefore Japanese take the Yen as part of their life. As with any currency, the Japanese Yen is divided into several different values, which makes the system easy and convenient to use.

Denominations 

When I looked into the denominations I wanted to focus on the banknotes rather than the coins as I found them more relevant to my brief.

The One Thousand Yen Banknote

The front design has a portrait of Hideyo Noguchi who was a prominent Japanese bacteriologist and the back design has pictures of famous Japanese landscapes such as Mt. Fuji, Lake Motosu, and cherry blossoms. Like most currency today the colour has a blue overlay and also includes many anti-counterfeiting techniques such as holograms, intaglio printing, watermarking, latent images, and special ink that reacts depending on the lighting and angles seen. The empty center circle actually holds a mirror of Noguchi's portrait if held up to the light. As the lowest denomination of Japanese Yen banknotes, the one-thousand Yen note is the most common and useful to have.

The Five Thousand Yen Banknote

The front has a portrait of Ichiyo Higuchi, who was Japan′s first prominent woman writer of modern times. She wrote relatively little as a result of living a brief life, she died at 24. The back design has a Screen painting of "Kakitsubata Flowers" by Korin Ogata. The main overlay colour of the 5000 Yen banknote is purple. Although of a higher denomination than 1000 and a lower denomination than 10,000, the 5000 Yen note is probably the least commonly seen in Japan.

The Ten Thousand Yen Banknote

The front has a portrait of Yukichi Fukuzawa who was a Japanese author, writer, teacher, translator, entrepreneur and journalist who founded Keio University, the newspaper Jiji shinpo  and the Institute for Study of Infectious Diseases. He was an early Japanese civil rights activist and liberal ideologist. His ideas about government and social institutions made a lasting impression on a rapidly changing Japan during the Meiji Era. He is regarded as one of the founders of modern Japan. The back focuses on the Chinese phoenix statue at Byoudou-in Temple in Kyoto. The main overlay colour of the 10,000 Yen banknote is brown. It is the largest denomination of currency available to the public in Japan. Although it is the highest, it is also readily seen and used by all classes as Japan is a cash-based society. 

From researching into the Japanese Yen I discovered numerous factors to consider, such as the different colours used in each denomination along with which banknote is used the most. Seeing who each face on the denomination was interesting also but not that useful as at this stage I wasn't considering using the same portraits but maybe the inclusion of the famous landscapes would be more useful.