1 Yen Japanese serial

Pick 26 belongs to the second series of Bank of Japan convertible notes — convertible, in theory, into silver. The 1889 Convertible Silver Notes were issued under the Bank of Japan Act framework that had been in place since 1882, but the silver convertibility guarantee was effectively suspended during the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–05 and never meaningfully restored thereafter. Notes already in circulation simply continued as inconvertible paper.

Printed entirely domestically by the Ministry of Finance's own bureau, this series marks Japan's deliberate move away from reliance on foreign printers — a policy choice rooted in Meiji-era industrialization priorities as much as in security concerns.