Japanese military yen

Japanese military yen
日本軍用手票 (Chinese) (Japanese)
100 Japanese military yen (1945)
Denominations
Subunit
1/100	Sen
Symbol	¥
Banknotes	1 sen, 5 sen, 10 sen, 50 sen, ¥1, ¥5, ¥10, ¥100
Coins	None
Demographics
User(s)	Areas occupied by Japan during World War II
Issuance
Central bank	Ministry of War of Japan
This infobox shows the latest status before this currency was rendered obsolete.

Japanese military yen (Chinese and Japanese: 日本軍用手票, also 日本軍票 in short), commonly abbreviated as JMY, was the currency issued to the soldiers of the Imperial Japanese Army and the Imperial Japanese Navy as a salary. The Imperial Japanese government first started issuing the military yen during the Russo-Japanese War in 1904. The military yen reached its peak during the Pacific War period, when the Japanese government excessively issued it to all of its occupied territories. In Hong Kong, the military yen was forced upon the local population as the sole official currency of the territory. Since the military yen was not backed by gold, and did not have a specific place of issuance, the military yen could not be exchanged for the Japanese yen. Forcing local populations to use the military yen officially was one of the ways the Japanese government could dominate the local economies.

The territories controlled or occupied by Japan had many different currencies. Taiwan maintained its own banking system and bank notes after it came under Japanese rule in 1895. The same is true for Korea post 1910. Between 1931 and 1945, large parts of China and South East Asia were occupied by Japan. Several types of currencies were put into circulation there during the occupation. In China, several puppet governments were created (e.g. Manchukuo), each issuing their own currency. In South East Asia, the Japanese military arranged for bank notes to be issued, denominated in the various currencies (rupees, pesos etc.) that had been circulating there prior to the occupation. These latter are referred to as Japanese invasion money. In addition to these currencies, the Japanese military issued their own bank notes, denominated in yen - this is the Japanese military yen. The military yen became the official currency in some occupied areas, e.g. Hong Kong.

In the late 1930s there was an issue of military yen which was similar to the standard yen in terms of design, but with minor modifications. Generally, thick red lines were overprinted to cancel the name "Bank of Japan" (日本銀行) and any text promising to pay the bearer in gold or silver. Large red text instead indicated that the note was military currency ("軍用手票") so as not to be confused with regular Japanese yen.