Japan

History

Japan minted its first standardized coin, the Wado Kaichin, in 708, before centuries of reliance on imported Chinese cash. The Tokugawa shogunate unified a gold-silver-copper system from 1601, replaced in 1871 by the decimal yen. The Bank of Japan was founded in 1882, the country passed through the gold standard, wartime managed currency, the 1946 postwar currency reform, a fixed 360 yen/dollar rate from 1949, a floating rate since 1973, and today a growing range of digital payment channels.