The official currency of Japan, used in Tokyo and throughout the country, is the Japanese yen.
Japan adopted the yen under the New Currency Act of 1871 during the Meiji period. The reform created a modern decimal currency system intended to replace the complex mixture of coins and feudal monetary arrangements used before modernization.
The yen is divided into 100 sen in the historical system, although sen coins are no longer used in everyday transactions. Its symbol is ¥, and its international currency code is JPY. Banknotes are issued by the Bank of Japan, while coins are issued by the Japanese government.
The yen is one of the world’s major reserve and trading currencies. It is commonly confused with the Chinese yuan because both currencies may use the ¥ symbol in some contexts, but yuan is the unit used in China and yen is Japan’s currency.