200 Yen

Start of issue: 25th Apr. Shōwa 2 (1927)

Issued by the Bank of Japan (Nippon Ginko) in 1927, in response to the Shōwa financial crisis. The Bank of Japan needed bills to be exchanged with other banks, and began to issue new 200 yen notes in a hurry to insure against bank runs. With banks in the country all temporarily closed, the printing office took the opportunity to manufacture the new bills. The normal printing process could not be carried out as it took too long to print both sides of the note. To remedy this problem just one side received a simple design. These one sided bills were given the nickname Urashiro / Urajiro (裏白) or "white reverse" notes. Although the reverse of the new notes were blank, the Bank of Japan vice president confidently stated that: "although it looks somewhat flimsy, it has the Bank of Japan watermark so there is no fear that it is counterfeit". Despite his sentiment some of the notes were rejected as possible fakes due to their rough printing on the side that had features. Although 106,000 yen's worth of the 200 yen bill were reported to be in circulation at the end of 1927, by 1929 these notes were described as "almost nonexistent".

Issued until 7th May 1927, only two week after the first issue, make it the shortest issuing period among all banknotes. Although being the highest value banknote at the time, it was afraided to be counterfeited due to rough manufacturing, so they were quickly withdrawn from circulation. Most of the notes were withdrawn within August of that year (but officially demonetized on 2nd May 1946).

17 pieces of regular notes were recorded to be non-withdrawn. Combining with all specimen notes, it is considered only below 20 pieces that exist.