A special 500 yen coin will be issued next March to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the start of Japanese emigration to Brazil in 1908, the Finance Ministry said Tuesday.
The coin will be identical to normal 500 yen coins in terms of materials but will depict a Japanese family of three emigrants on one side and a design of cherry blossoms and coffee beans on the reverse, the ministry said.
The number to be issued will be determined later. The coins to be sold at face value at financial institutions.
Japanese emigration to Brazil began April 28, 1908, when the Kasado-maru departed Kobe for the Brazilian port of Santos with 781 people on board.
Another commemorative coin with a face value of 1,000 yen will be issued around October to mark the holding of the International Skills Festival for All, Japan 2007, in Shizuoka Prefecture, the ministry said.
It said 80,000 of the coins would be issued, even though the cost of making them will exceed the face value. Japan Mint, the ministry's coin-minting division, will sell the silver coins for 6,000 yen apiece on a mail-order basis.
