Critics might fret that the recent slowdown in the growth in Japan's monetary base (banks' reserves at the central bank plus notes and coins in circulation) suggests that the Bank of Japan has tightened policy.

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Under a currency board arrangement, the central bank guarantees the redemption of all notes in circulation at a set exchange rate to the dollar or another foreign currency or basket of currencies.

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The unfit notes are destroyed and the notes deemed fit for re-circulation are added back into Reserve Bank inventories to be paid out to banks in filling future orders.

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