100 Yen

The Bank of Japan's 1930 100 Yen issue belongs to the convertible note period — these were still nominally redeemable in silver, though Japan had suspended the gold standard in 1917 and the practical mechanics of redemption had long been eroded. The Cabinet Printing Bureau, operating under the Finance Ministry, had produced Bank of Japan notes since the Meiji period, keeping all security printing firmly under state control rather than contracting to foreign firms as many contemporaries did.

Wartime hoarding and the 1946 new yen conversion — which rendered old notes invalid overnight — account for the relative scarcity of circulated survivors in presentable condition.