When that system was abandoned in 1971, the yen became undervalued and was allowed to float. To stabilize the Japanese economy, the exchange rate of the yen was fixed at ¥360 per US$ as part of the Bretton Woods system. įollowing World War II, the yen lost much of its prewar value. The Bank of Japan was founded in 1882 and given a monopoly on controlling the money supply. The yen replaced the previous Tokugawa coinage as well as the various hansatsu paper currencies issued by feudal han (fiefs).
The New Currency Act of 1871 introduced Japan's modern currency system, with the yen defined as 1.5 g (0.048 troy ounces) of gold, or 24.26 g (0.780 troy ounces) of silver, and divided decimally into 100 sen or 1,000 rin. It is also widely used as a third reserve currency after the US dollar and the euro. It is the third-most traded currency in the foreign exchange market, after the United States dollar (US$) and the euro. The yen ( Japanese: 円, symbol: ¥ code: JPY) is the official currency of Japan. The language(s) of this currency do(es) not have a morphological plural distinction. For other uses, see Yen (disambiguation).
