00:01 John Daub: Hey everybody, I've got some old banknotes. I've been back in Japan for about three weeks, and these banknotes were issued at the beginning of July, and I still have not received one. I've been to the ATM about a half a dozen times, I've been shopping quite a bit, and no one has given me the new bills for Japan. If you don't know, these new bills came out right there on the screen. I think it was July 3rd, 2024, which was a month ago. This is now August 6th. It's weird that I haven't received any of them.

00:31 John Daub: And then I remembered a lot of the questions that you guys had when I did a currency live stream on this exact topic. Do the banknotes actually expire? So I went to the Bank of Japan website, and I did a little bit of research, also with the printing mint and some of the other Japanese government associations that are in charge of this, and I realized that since 1885—this blew my mind—there are 21 banknotes that are still legal tender. This is the legal tender of Japan. So these banknotes going all the way back to 1885, including a one-yen note, you could still legally go to the store, and they would have to accept that. I wonder if they teach this to people that are working inside some of these stores, that the legal tender from 1885, when the Meiji era came in, this note is still accepted as a one-yen. Of course, nobody does that because the value of that note is quite big.

01:27 John Daub: But the real answer here is, for those that don't know, this is a one-yen note. So for those that are holding on to these yen that was printed in 2004, this is the 2004 run of the notes here, here's the 5,000-yen note. The answer to that is that, no, these are actually going to continue to be legal tender. They're always going to have the value that is printed on them, and the Japanese government stands behind the currency. So you don't have to worry that your currency is going to expire. You're going to come here. It's not going to be accepted.

01:55 John Daub: Let me show you some of the assets here, so you get an idea. This is fascinating to me. I'm going to start off with this one here. Alright, this is the printing website here for the organization that prints the banknotes. These are the ones that are still legal tender. Alright, the one-yen note from 1885. The one-yen note from 1889. Like, these are legal tender. The series E, which is I. One-yen note from 1943. The one-yen note from 1946. These are all like, just post-World War II. They have some notes from right here in the occupation. The 1951 would be as well. It's really interesting. And, like, these are still, again, would be accepted by stores, or they should be.

02:46 John Daub: Now we get into the series, and these series B, series C, series D, and series E. There is another series that, from issued in 2004, that is not accepted. And I want to talk about that too, and what happened to that issue of them. There's actually two types of 10,000-yen notes. I didn't even know that, that they have printed out there. So, again, this one here, the series E in 2004, is not accepted anymore. I had no idea. Because of... I asked ChatGPT about this, and the answer I got was really interesting. I didn't think about that. But this was at the start of the millennium, I guess 2000, and technology was changing. The series D also, these are not accepted. Again, it just depends on what series you have. And you can't get your money back if you have these particular notes here. And there's a series C. So these are going back quite a ways here.

03:53 John Daub: The reason why... Can anybody tell me what the reason why is for this? I know some of you might know. All right, let me just... I did this research for you guys, so you don't have to. You don't have to pay for ChatGPT. So I said here, why did the series D notes expire in 2004? It had to do with counterfeiting. New series was released with enhanced security features, so they cannot tell if the series D is real or not. So they can't accept it. You might have a counterfeit one, they actually can't even tell. So that made a lot of sense. So there's some banknotes where enhanced security features were issued, and then you no longer could accept... use it as legal tender. So it just depends on what series of note that you have. And some of the stores have something that you can check on here.

06:06 John Daub: So this is the Bank of Japan's website. Again, this is the official one. Bank of Japan has issued 56 kinds of banknotes since 1885. They said 25 kinds are valid. So the other one said 21. So I'm not really sure. But I'm gonna put a link in the description for this, um, PDF that has the ones that are issued. So you can check in case you do have some back ones that you wanna go in there and take a look at. Banknotes are no longer valid and inconvenient for use, such as 10,000 yen notes with the portrait of Shōtoku Taishi (Prince Shōtoku). Shōtoku Taishi can be exchanged for those that are currently issued at the Bank of Japan's head office. So even if it's not accepted as legal tender comes this way, you can still go to the Bank of Japan in Tokyo into their branch office and exchange the banknotes here. So you don't have to worry about it. Your yen is always going to be accepted here. Uh, they remain legal tender and they give a bunch of explanations.

08:00 John Daub: So, your yen is always going to be valid. You're going to be able to get your money back at all times. But I went back up here. 31 are no longer valid, apparently. So I went in here and I looked at the current issue of the money that is being issued right now. The old notes are still being issued? Or they're still in circulation? And you can see here, even the 10,000 yen note, a lot of you might have some misunderstanding. That's still being issued. It's still legal tender and you can still use it even in some of the vending machines. Now, the coins are interesting. The new 500 yen coin from 2021. And then the 100 yen comes from 1967. It hasn't changed since then. 1967 was the last time that they minted the 50 yen coins. 1959, like right after the occupation for the 10 yen coin. The 5 yen coin, 1959. Year of Rice. And 1955 for the 1 yen coin, which is interesting. Young Tree. So like, these coins have not changed at all.

09:41 John Daub: Yeah, but bottom line is that your currency is going to be just fine. They probably need to do a redesign in the coins. They did that for the 500 yen coin in particular because they did it the first time when they got a new coin. When I like not too long after I got to Japan in 1998 because you could take... I don't know if I should say this to you. And I actually did this with some success. You could take... You know, like how you can use Canadian money in the United States and the Canadian money seems to... You could use them in like washing machines and you'd really make people upset if you use Canadian quarters in the washing machine. Like stuff like this. You can use them in the parking meters. People did that because nobody liked the parking meters. I never did that. That's not legal. So in Japan you could get the 500 won coins from Korea which are not even close to 500 yen and use them in Japan. They were like the same size and everything. And Japan picked up on that so they changed the 500 yen coins from like the 1990s so that they weren't like the won... I don't know if Korea was like pranking Japan so that their citizens could get more power. I don't know what was going on there. But they had to change it to the new 500 yen coins and then they just released a newer one which was bi-color which is so cool. There's like a silver and kind of a gold in there. But the coins in general have not been changed. So perhaps this is something that might go on in the Reiwa era where they changed the design of the coins. I think it'd be pretty cool. But the coin designs have not changed since just after the occupation which is kind of cool. And it seems like some of them came in right after the Olympics as well. The 1964 Olympics. You know, it's interesting stuff.

11:19 John Daub: The currency. The information on these current notes here is fascinating too. I did an episode on this about a month ago. But the counterfeit proofing of this stuff is really good. And I think it's just odd that I have not received any of them in a month of being a pretty good shopper going to food trucks and all this. I never get this back, you know. And for those that are wondering, before we leave, this is still legal tender. This is the 1 yen note issued by the Meiji government in 1885. Look at the happy dude on there. That's a pretty good printing. This is a very mint condition one, I guess. I don't know how much this is going for. But I don't know if you find this. Let me know. But this is still legal tender. If you were to use this at a store, you'd be able to pay 1 yen. That they would still honor the 1 yen. But you might as well just sell it on eBay or some other site. Mercari or something. Because this is worth way more than 1 yen. But it's just kind of funny that this is still legal tender.

12:33 John Daub: There's about 500 people that are still asking me about this. Now you can relax. Your money is still good. Don't worry about it. You're going to be just fine. As a promise to Michael Sassano and some of the other people in the chat that are so nice to give me the super chats. I'm going to go get a drink at this vending machine. We're going to end it by cooling it off because I got to be honest with you. I'm really hot. Sweat starting to come down. So I appreciate the super chats. And I honor you by buying a drink.

13:10 John Daub: What drink shall it be? This is a Boss Coffee. I think this is Suntory. So we have Craft Boss Zone. I'm not getting any energy drinks. Pepsi has gotten kind of funky here in Japan. They only have one. CC Lemon with the non-coco fruits. Non-coco is down south. I think it's like Kagoshima or Okinawa. Mountain Dew. Whoa. I don't see that very often. Muscat, which is these grapes down in Okayama. And then of course the Boss Coffee. You can't go wrong with the rainbow blend. Maybe I'll go with this. This is Kyoto Matcha. I'm not a Mountain Dew dude. I'm over the age of 20. So I'm not saying that there's anything wrong with it. But I'm not into Mountain Dew. But you could be. That's cool. Cold and refreshing. Thank you guys.

14:55 John Daub: I do like this area, Tsukishima (Moon Island). It's undergoing a ton of renovations right now. Check it out. You see this old building that looks like it was built right after World War II or maybe a little bit before that. You have the brand new mansions, condominium buildings. This one opened up about two years ago. And then you still have the small alleys in here that are being torn down. And this block might go the way of the Dodo bird. This was all nagaya (row houses) or like really old 1950s shacks. And they're all gone now. As I open up this green tea. Thanks guys for the super chats. I appreciate it very much. Keep me cool in more ways than one. Oh, that's got a really robust matcha. That's like matcha green tea. I think it's like a fusion from Kyoto. Really good. No calories. A lot of vitamin C. Keeps you healthy.

16:14 John Daub: All right, I'm going to walk. I just want to show you... I'm off of the Monja Street here. Some of the developments of this neighborhood. And I want to do a 360 video on this. The only Japan 360 channel. Hasn't had much content. I just released a couple days ago. This one here. And they did the cleaning for this today. I wonder if any of you guys watching actually went there. Hook up with me on Discord. On the Discord server. Send some pictures. Because I'd like to see how many people went this year compared to last year. Because of the video I released. I'm sure some people were in Kyoto and in Nara. Got a chance to see it. You see the streets here. At the end of the street is a brand new mega apartment complex being built. And you still have the low buildings from the 1950s. So the contrast of this neighborhood is interesting. But I feel like this neighborhood is not going to be the same in three or four years. So I think it's a good idea to come and visit here.

17:15 John Daub: A lot of French people walk around the streets here. I notice them. They're always speaking French. But you can see the... The alleys here have a lot of character. And it's not going to be like that for much longer. And that's kind of heartbreaking. And if you want, you can eat lunch at Chicken Country. It's pretty cool. Oh, there's a Coca-Cola machine. Let me just show you down some of the alleys here. They're really, really nice. This is what I think of when I think of Japan. But you don't... But these are all going away. And it's kind of heartbreaking for me. I don't know. I actually tried to rent one of these. Tried to get... It wasn't... The bathtub was too small. And it was just too narrow. It was made for people half my size. But people still live in them. And I'll take you down this one.

18:18 John Daub: And I'm going to do a very thorough episode. And maybe do a couple of live streams this year. Because again, like all of these old houses, they're going away. And they're making room for these kinds of buildings. And I don't like that. But it has to do with the earthquakes. Earthquake proofing it. But look at the trees. The neighborhood. It's really fresh. And you get a... You get the vibe of old Tokyo here. Look at that. Like the rust. And the authentic way that wood and metal ages. I love that. It's like the bank notes. There's a brand new house among them. I don't know how long they're going to be able to stay here. Because they're buying out these blocks. These city blocks. And putting in mega apartments.

19:16 John Daub: This area is called Tsukishima, Moon Island. T-S-U-K-I-S-H-I-M-A. And it's famous for monjayaki (Tokyo's soul food). Which you can see here. It's teppanyaki. You can see the grills here. There's about a hundred of these restaurants up and down the street here. But I always say go off of the street. I found the ambulance over there. And you'll find some good monjayaki places. But as long as it's not a fire. You know. Yeah. But you'll still find some mom and pop shops like this that are sort of in business. They're selling tobacco. As long as there's smokers. There's always going to be customers. And there's a melonpan (melon bread) shop that I really like down the street from here. Not this one here. This is the chain. And there's a couple of interesting foods that have arisen here. But monjayaki is the way to go here. It's about a ten minute walk. About a fifteen minute walk from Ginza. Actually. But it has a totally different vibe. And it's very residential. Yeah. This is my backyard. Maybe this is my front yard.

20:32 John Daub: Hey Michael. How you doing? Nice to see you here brother. We are doing well. We are doing very well. In fact. The postcards are going to get sent out. This month's postcard is this one here. Michael. I'll be sending this one out to you in a couple of days. I'll put these out like Friday or Monday at the latest. So these are coming to you. Mahalo so much. And one little Easter egg here. This is because I went to this. The only Japan logo on this one is square. Because I'm an idiot. So you get the chance to see the square logo. It's rare. But it's there. There you go. I appreciate it guys. There's a negiyaki. That looks good. Smells good out here on the street.

21:31 John Daub: Alright everybody. This is about currency. Let's keep it on point. Thanks so much everybody. I will be hip to be square. Jason there you go. I'll see you all in another live stream tomorrow. But if you ask questions I will answer them. And hopefully the answer is good enough to get a comment from you guys. So go check out the new episode. If you haven't already leave me a comment there. And you can catch me on the telephone. We have a telephone line right there. It's a call OIG 1-325-CALL-OIG. And it's a Texas number I believe. The voice messages that are appropriate I will play here. And answer the questions live. While I walk around the city. See you guys. Matane (see you later).