The Bank of Japan said Wednesday it will reduce its print run for the new 2000 yen bank notes for the current fiscal year, which ends March 31, from the initially planned 1 billion to 770 million because of their low circulation.
The central bank issued the 2000 yen bank notes on July 19 to mark the July 21-23 Group of Eight summit in Okinawa and the millennium year. The bills were the country's first new bank notes in 42 years.
But the notes have failed to catch on because of the delay in adapting vending machines and automatic teller machines to accept them. Only 140 million notes are currently in circulation while about 580 million are being stored at the BOJ.
To promote circulation of the new note, the central bank paid part of its employees' salaries in 2000 yen notes and has distributed public relations pamphlets about them.
The BOJ also started offering to exchange other notes for the 2000 yen bills at its outlets early this month.