20 Yen - Government bond Issue 16

Japan's wartime government bond notes of this period were issued under emergency fiscal legislation as the Pacific War consumed an ever-larger share of national output. The sixteenth government bond series was authorized under the expanding wartime finance framework that increasingly blurred the line between negotiable instruments and forced savings — holders had limited practical options for redemption as the war deepened.

The National Printing Bureau's Tokyo facilities had by 1941 been substantially redirected toward military financial paper. Watermarking remained, though production quality in the bond note series varied more than in standard Bank of Japan issues of the same years.