10 Yen

This note belongs to the wartime "B-yen" series issued as Japan's military and economic position deteriorated sharply. By 1944, the Cabinet Printing Bureau was operating under severe material constraints — paper quality declined noticeably across the series, and the ink formulations shifted as imported supplies became inaccessible. Notes from the final months of production show measurable differences in paper weight and print registration compared to earlier runs.

Postwar Allied occupation authorities demonetized the wartime yen series in 1946. Enormous quantities were surrendered and destroyed, which paradoxically makes heavily circulated survivors more historically legible than uncirculated ones.