National Printing Bureau

National Printing Bureau (国立印刷局, Kokuritsu Insatsu-kyoku^?) (NPB) is a Japanese governmental agency in charge of the production of Japanese paper money, Yen. It also produces various other products, such as postage stamps and the official governmental gazette.

The Paper Money Office was created on July 27, 1871 under the administration of the Ministry of Finance, and was soon renamed in August the Paper Money Bureau. At the time, banknote printing was outsourced to the United States and Germany, as Japan did not have the required facilities for domestic production. The bureau managed the private national banks and managed the issue and exchange of banknotes.

In January 1872, production of paper money was handed over to the Paper Money Bureau, and it acquired papermaking and printing duties. These included the production of banknotes, securities, postage stamps, and typographic printing. The first domestically produced Japanese money, a 1-yen banknote, was created on October 15, 1877.

The Paper Money Bureau was merged with the Official Gazette Bureau on January 1, 1898, and thus acquired the duty of printing the Official Gazette, starting July 2, 1898.

The Bureau became an incorporated administrative agency (Independent Administrative Institution) in April 2003.

The NPB includes a Head Office, Research Institute, Government Publications Service Center, and several production plants.

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