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BOJ Gets Hip to Social Media With Tweet That Goes Semi-Viral

BOJ Gets Hip to Social Media With Tweet That Goes Semi-Viral

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Surpassing 190,000 likes on a tweet isn’t a lot for Naomi Osaka or Masayoshi Son, but it might be a record for the Bank of Japan.

The BOJ on Thursday attracted a fair amount of attention from Japanese Twitter-goers with a two-word tweet, saying simply “ta-da!” to announce a redesigned 10,000-yen bank note that went into print yesterday.

The new note, the Japanese equivalent of the $100 bill, doesn’t look dramatically different from the old one: the most visible change is a holographic band to thwart counterfeiters. But most people still seemed to appreciate the bank’s lighthearted approach in introducing it.

At least one person on Twitter called the message, “cute.” Another said “great job,” while a few claimed to be “shocked” at the bank’s casual tone.   

A majority of Japanese households find the bank’s communication style hard to understand, according to the BOJ’s own surveys. With one little tweet, though, Governor Haruhiko Kuroda and his colleagues may have managed to make themselves seem a tiny bit more approachable. 

©2021 Bloomberg L.P.