5000 Yen - Heisei Ice hockey

Issued to commemorate the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano — the first Winter Games held in Asia since Sapporo in 1972 — this coin was part of a multi-coin program the Japanese government authorized across 1997 and 1998. Japan fielded its first-ever women's ice hockey team at Nagano, a detail that gave the sport particular domestic resonance at the time of issue. The Nagano games are also remembered for an ice hockey upset that had nothing to do with Japan: a Czech squad led by Dominik Hašek defeated Russia and ultimately the gold-medal round, ending decades of North American NHL dominance assumptions in Olympic play.