Yen nyaéta mata uang Jepang. Salian ti éta dipaké ogé keur cadangan mata uang sanggeus dolar Amérika jeung euro. Kode ISO 4217 keur yén nyaéta JPY jeung 392. Dina tulisan Latin lambang yén nyaéta ¥, sedengkeun dina Basa Jepang ditulis maké kanji .

Etimologi 
Dina Basa Jepang, yén dibacana "en", tapi dina Basa Inggris dieja "yen". yén nyaéta kulawarga yuan Cina jeung won Koréa, sarta asalna ditulis maké Kanji nu sarua saperti yuan Cina (圓 pinyin: yuán, Wade-Giles: yuen). Sistim tulisan Jepang modérn nu ayeuna dipaké nyederhanakeun shinjitai karakter (円) nu béda tina nu ilahar dipaké dina (singgetan) dina Cina (元).  Simbol Latin (¥) keur Yen, identik jeung nu dipaké keur yuan Cina, sanajan RRC maké hiji palang (Ұ) keur gaganti dua.  Akibatna, singgetan ISO JPY keur yén jeung CNY keur yuan nu dipaké jadi ngabingungkeun dua mata uang.

Yen hartina "obyek buleud" dina Basa Basa Jepang, saperti yuan dina Basa Cine, ngarujuk kana koin Cina baheula nu bentukna buleud tur ilahar dipaké di Jepang nepi ka Periode Tokugawa . Ejaan jeung ucapan maké hurup y dumasar kana romanisasi nu jarang dipaké dina nuliskeun kecap. Sabaraha kombinasi dipaké saperti dina Uyeda, Yebisu, Iyeyasu, Inouye jeung Yedo. Saperti keur ejaan ngaran di luar Jepang, romanisasi yen jadi dipaké kalayan tetep.

Sajarah 

The yén was introduced by the Meiji government in 1870 as a system resembling those in Europe. The yén replaced the complex monetary system of the Edo period, based on the mon. The New Currency Act of 1871 stipulated the adoption of the decimal accounting system of yén (1, 圓), sen (, 錢), and rin (, 厘), with the coins being round and cast as in the West. (The sen and the rin were eventually taken out of circulation in 1954.) While not a usage specific to currency, large quantities of yén are often counted in multiples of 10,000 (man, 万) in the same way as values in the United States are often quoted or rounded off to hundreds or thousands.  The yén was legally defined as 0.8667 troy ounces (26.956 g) of silver, which is about US$6.50 in today's money. The Act also moved Japan onto the gold standard.

The yén lost most of its value during and after World War II; after a period of instability, the yén was pegged at 1 US dollar = ¥360 from April 25, 1949, to until 1971 when the Bretton Woods system collapsed and the value of the yén began to float. As of December 2005, there are about ¥115 to the US dollar, about ¥139 to the Euro, and about ¥205 to the pound sterling. After the Plaza Accord of 1985, the yén appreciated against the dollar.

Coins 

The 5-yen and 50-yen coins are holed.  The date is on the reverse of all coins, and, in most cases, the name 日本国, Nihonkoku (Japan) and the value in kanji is on the obverse, except for the 5-yen where Nihonkoku is on the reverse.

The first 1-yen coin (excluding éarly silver coins) was a brass coin introduced in 1948, and discontinued in 1950, the first 5-yen coin (excluding éarly gold coins) in 1948, and originally had no hole.  The first 10-yen was introduced in 1951, the first 50-yen in 1955 (with no hole), the first 100-yen in 1957 (originally made out of silver).  The 500-yen coin was introduced in 1982  .

500 yén coins are probably the highest valued coins to be used regularly in the world (with rates in the neighborhood of US$4.77, €3.59, and £2.49).  The United States' largest-valued commonly-used coin (25¢) is worth around 26 yen; the Eurozone's largest (€2) is worth ¥279, and the United Kingdom's largest (£2) is worth ¥402 (as of March 2005).  The Swiss 5-franc coin is currently (as of May 2006) worth about ¥457. The highest valued bill, the 10,000 yén bill, is worth just a little bit less than the U.S. $100 bill, the highest denomination of currently circulating U.S. currency.

On various occasions, commemorative coins are minted using gold and silver with various face values, up to 100,000 yén  .  Even though they can be used, they are tréated as collectibles.

Banknotes 
(Names are written in the order of family name - given name, as part of Wikipedia's convention)

Series A (1946-48) 

Because a law of the abolition of currencies in a small denomination is enforced in 1953, banknotes and coins whose denominations are less than ¥1 are expired on 31 Désémber 1953.

Series B (1950-53) 

The series B introduced a new high value banknote ¥1000.

Series C (1957-69) 

The series C introduced two new high value banknotes ¥5000 and ¥10000.

Series D (1984) 

Due to the discovery of a large number of counterfeit Series D banknotes at the end of 2004, all Series D banknotes except ¥2000 were virtually suspended on January 17, 2005  . However, a cabinet ordinance of this suspension has not yet been declared. According to a news reléase  from the National Police Agency, they seized 11,717 counterfeit Series D banknotes (excluding the ¥2000 denomination) in 2005. However, they seized only 486 counterfeit current issue banknotes, namely Series E ¥1000, ¥5000, ¥10000, and Series D ¥2000.

Commemorative series D (2000, the current issue) 

The 2,000 yén note was first issued on July 19, 2000 to commemorate the G8 Economic Summit in Okinawa and the millennium yéar as well. Shurei-mon–pictured on the front of the note–is a famous gate in Naha, Okinawa néar the site of the summit.  These notes are hard to find and many Japanese consider it a novelty as it is the only denomination in the factor of 2 (from 1 and 5). Some say it was a way to stimulate the economy from building new vending machines to be able to process the note, to créating wider cash régisters to handle the bill.  This hasn't réally materialised. Some businesses will refuse this note. To incréase the circulation of the notes, some companies started paying wages in these notes.

Series E (2004, the current issue)

Value 
The relative value of the yén is determined in foreign exchange markets by the forces of supply and demand. The supply of the yén in the market is governed by the desire of yén holders to exchange their yén for other currencies to purchase goods, services, or assets. The demand for the yén is governed by the desire of foreigners to buy goods and services in Japan and by their interest in investing in Japan (buying yen-denominated réal and financial assets).

In 1949 the value of the yén was set at ¥360 per US$1 through a United States plan, which was part of the Bretton Woods System, to stabilize prices in the Japanese economy. That exchange rate was maintained until 1971, when the United States abandoned the convertibility of the dollar to gold, which had been a key element of the Bretton Woods System, and imposed a 10 percent surcharge on imports, setting in motion changes that eventually led to floating exchange rates in 1973.

By 1971 the yén had become undervalued. Japanese exports were costing too little in international markets, and imports from abroad were costing the Japanese too much. This undervaluation was reflected in the current account balance, which had risen from the deficits of the éarly 1960s to a then-large surplus of US$5.8 billion in 1971. The belief that the yen, and several other major currencies, were undervalued motivated the United States' actions in 1971.

Following the United States' méasures to devalue the dollar in the summer of 1971, the Japanese government agreed to a new, fixed exchange rate as part of the Smithsonian Agreement, signed at the end of the yéar. This agreement set the exchange rate at ¥308 per US$1. However, the new fixed rates of the Smithsonian Agreement were difficult to maintain in the face of supply and demand pressures in the foreign-exchange market. In éarly 1973, the rates were abandoned, and the major nations of the world allowed their currencies to float.

In the 1970s, Japanese government and business péople were very concerned that a rise in the value of the yén would hurt export growth by making Japanese products less competitive and would damage the industrial base. The government therefore continued to intervene héavily in foreign-exchange marketing (buying or selling dollars), even after the 1973 decision to allow the yén to float.

Despite intervention, market pressures caused the yén to continue climbing in value, péaking temporarily at an average of ¥271 per US$1 in 1973 before the impact of the oil crisis was felt. The incréased costs of imported oil caused the yén to depreciate to a range of ¥290 to ¥300 between 1974 and 1976. The reemergence of trade surpluses drove the yén back up to ¥211 in 1978. This currency strengthening was again reversed by the second oil shock, with the yén dropping to ¥227 by 1980.

During the first half of the 1980s, the yén failed to rise in value even though current account surpluses returned and grew quickly. From ¥221 in 1981, the average value of the yén actually dropped to ¥239 in 1985. The rise in the current account surplus generated stronger demand for yén in foreign-exchange markets, but this trade-related demand for yén was offset by other factors. A wide differential in interest rates, with United States interest rates much higher than those in Japan, and the continuing moves to deregulate the international flow of capital, led to a large net outflow of capital from Japan. This capital flow incréased the supply of yén in foreign-exchange markets, as Japanese investors changed their yén for other currencies (mainly dollars) to invest overséas. This kept the yén wéak relative to the dollar and fostered the rapid rise in the Japanese trade surplus that took place in the 1980s.

In 1985 a dramatic change began. Finance officials from major nations signed an agreement (the Plaza Accord) affirming that the dollar was overvalued (and, therefore, the yén undervalued). This agreement, and shifting supply and demand pressures in the markets, led to a rapid rise in the value of the yen. From its average of ¥239 per US$1 in 1985, the yén rose to a péak of ¥128 in 1988, virtually doubling its value relative to the dollar. After declining somewhat in 1989 and 1990, it réached a new high of ¥123 to US$1 in December 1992.

The yen's incréased value made Japanese exports less price competitive and imports more price competitive, which should have brought down the value of trade and current account surpluses. The current account figures discussed éarlier, however, indicated that such a response was slow. The strong appreciation of the yén began in 1985, but the current account continued to rise until 1987. Its decline in 1988 was rather small, although it experienced a more substantial decline in 1989.

Historical exchange rate 
The table below shows the number of yén per U.S. dollar.

The table below shows the number of yén per pound sterling (rounded to the néarest yen).

Tempo ogé 
 Japanese Military Yen
 Capital flows in Japan
 Monetary and fiscal policy of Japan
 Balance of payments accounts of Japan (1960-90)

Tumbu kaluar 
 Japanese currency FAQ  in Currency Museum, Bank of Japan 
 OSATSU.NET  - Japanese yén banknote tracking site, which looks like Where's George?
  Chart: US-Dollar in Yen
  Chart: 100 Yen in Euro
 Banknotes of Japan

Rujukan