What is Japan’s official currency, whose name means “round object” in Japanese?

Japan’s official currency, whose name means “round object” in Japanese, is the Japanese yen.

The yen was introduced by the New Currency Act of 1871 during the Meiji period. Japan adopted the yen as a modern decimal currency while reforming its financial and political institutions. The word yen is written 円 in Japanese, a character associated with circular objects and coins.

One yen is divided into 100 sen, although sen coins are no longer used in everyday transactions. The yen’s international currency code is JPY, and its symbol is ¥. Japanese banknotes are issued by the Bank of Japan, while coins are produced by the Japan Mint.

The yen is sometimes confused with China’s yuan because both names derive from the same East Asian character for a round monetary unit. In English, “yen” is the standard name for Japan’s currency, while “Japanese yen” makes the country explicit.