Japan's printing 1.23 billion 10,000-yen bills as people hoard cash at home

Japan is set to print a bunch of ¥10,000 bills as more people hoard cash at home.

The Finance Ministry wants to print 1.23 billion ¥10,000 bills in fiscal year 2016, an increase of 180 million from a year earlier, according to the Japan Times.

The number of ¥10,000 bills issued annually had leveled off to around 1.05 billion in the fiscal years from 2011 to 2015.

"Some financial market sources believe it is because more people are keeping their money at home rather than in banks, because interest rates on deposits have fallen to almost zero after the Bank of Japan introduced a negative interest rate in February," the Japan Times reports.

In fact, the chief economist at Dai-ichi Life Research Institute, Hideo Kumano, told the newspaper that the total amount of cash stashed at home is estimated to have increased to ¥40 trillion, up from ¥5 trillion the year before.

Notably, earlier on Thursday the Bank of Japan's governor, Haruhiko Kuroda, suggested the central bank could ease policy even further if needed.

Shortly after that, the yen surged for the fifth straight day, strengthening by as much as 1.7% to 107.92 against the dollar.

That's the strongest level since October 19, 2014 - right before the Bank of Japan shocked the markets by boosting its quantitative easing program.

The yen is stronger by 1.35% at 108.31 per dollar as of 4:47 p.m. ET.

Check out the full story at the Japan Times.