JPY (Japanese Yen)

The currency abbreviation or the currency symbol for the Japanese yen (JPY), the currency for Japan. The yen is made up of 100 sen or 1000 rin and is often presented with a symbol that looks like the capital letter Y with two horizontal dashes through the center. The yen was originally introduced by the Meiji government as a measure to modernize the country economically.

The yen was first seen in 1872, replacing the mon currency of the feudal era. The yen lost most of its value by the end of World War II and was pegged to the U.S. dollar in 1949. When the U.S. went off the gold standard in 1971, the yen was devalued again and has been a floating currency since 1973, rising and falling against the dollar with the international exhange rates.