Banknote & Postage Stamp Museum

The National Printing Bureau was founded in 1871 (Meiji 4) with the name Paper Money Office (Shiheishi) under the Ministry of Finance. This was around the time when modern banknotes and postage stamps began to be used in Japan. Over the ensuing 140 years, the National Printing Bureau has always been engaged in the manufacture of banknotes and postage stamps, its own history progressing together with that of its products. The variety of products manufactured and accumulated through the years is precious evidence narrating the histories of banknote, postage stamp, and printing technology in Japan.

The exhibition rooms of this museum display various exhibits to explain effectively the history of notes, anticounterfeiting technologies, and other related subjects. These exhibits include: various products that have been manufactured by the National Printing Bureau, such as banknotes, postage stamps, and securities; pre-Meiji-era notes; notes and postage stamps of foreign countries; printing machines; and chalcographic plates closely related to the manufacture of notes. We cordially invite you to visit this museum and gain knowledge through the exhibits of notes and postage stamps. The information offered by this museum is in Japanese only.

The exhibition room on the first floor primarily displays materials related to manufacturing technologies for notes and postage stamps. In this room, raw materials, tools, machines (some are models) and other items that have been used in manufacturing processes, such as papermaking, platemaking, and printing, are introduced using various audiovisual methods. In the section providing hands-on exhibits, you can observe how the luminescent ink on banknotes glows.

The exhibition room on the second floor has a number of sections, including a section which shows the histories of notes, postage stamps, government bonds, and passports, and the history of the National Printing Bureau itself, as well as a section for program exhibitions. In these sections, you can see many valuable materials that may help you learn about the histories of notes and postage stamps in Japan and other countries, and also about anticounterfeiting technologies and other unusual information.