200 Yen

Japan's wartime fiscal pressure by 1945 was acute enough that the government authorised denominations it had previously avoided. The 200 Yen was an unusual value for Japanese issue — most prewar and early wartime series had adhered to round multiples more familiar to the public — and its appearance so late in the Pacific War reflects the inflationary spiral that was already compressing the purchasing power of lower notes into near irrelevance.

The Cabinet Printing Bureau was still operating in Tokyo despite sustained Allied bombing campaigns targeting the capital in early 1945, which creates a narrow and genuinely precarious window for production. Notes from this period often show minor paper inconsistencies attributable to wartime supply constraints on quality inputs.