500 Yen - Heisei Tokushima

Part of Japan's 47 Prefectures Coin Program, which ran from 2008 to 2016 and issued two distinct 500 yen coins per prefecture — one depicting a local product or landscape, the other a festival or tradition. Tokushima's entry references the Awa Odori, one of Japan's largest dance festivals, held annually in August and drawing over a million visitors to a prefecture of fewer than 750,000 residents. The program was administered through a lottery system; coins were not available at face value through ordinary retail channels but allocated via application to participating financial institutions.