The path from shrub to bill begins at the foot of the Himalayas in Nepal, near towns that have long been famous not for their agriculture but as gateways to Mount Everest.

Here, every spring, hillsides erupt in yellow - the flowers of the mitsumata plant, also known as argeli or paperbush, native to the Himalayan range. Its bark has long, strong fibers that are perfect for making thin yet durable paper, according to the Kantou website.

It used to be grown domestically in Japan, but production has been slowly dwindling for years, said Matsubara. It's hard work tied to the countryside, and people are increasingly moving from rural areas to big cities like Tokyo in search of jobs - leaving shrinking villages and dying industries.

"The current reality is that the number of farmers who produce paperbush is becoming smaller and smaller," Matsubara said.

That's where the Nepali supply chain came in.

Kanpou first went to Nepal through a charity program in the 1990s to help farmers dig wells - and once there, discovered paperbush growing on mountains as far as the eye could see. They began teaching farmers to cultivate the crop, initially only produced and exported in small quantities.

But as the shortage of Japanese paperbush became evident in the following years, Kanpou and the Nepali farmers ramped up production until they became the main source of the yen bill.

It's a protracted process, said Matsubara: farmers plant seedlings in early summer, harvest their branches in the fall, then spend several months processing the bark through steaming, peeling, washing and drying.

Once the raw paper is ready in the winter, it's sent to the Nepali capital Kathmandu and driven to the western Indian city Kolkata, where it's brought by ship to Yokohama, Japan.

The profits from the paperbush sales have provided a new revenue stream to Nepali communities, said Matsubara. He claimed the growing industry has helped build new facilities and infrastructure in Kanpou's partner villages, and provided newfound financial stability to vulnerable families.

In 2015, rural Nepali households had an average monthly income of 27,511 Nepalese rupees (about $205), according to global economic database CEIC.

Meanwhile, the latest crop of paperbush from Nepal's Ilam district was sold to Japan for more than 180,000 yen (about $1,114) - meaning a revenue of about 30,000 yen ($185) for each of the six farmer groups that participated within the district, Matsubara said.

To read the complete article, see:
How Japan's newest yen note came from the Nepali mountains(https://edition.cnn.com/2024/07/02/business/japan-yen-note-nepal-paperbush-intl-hnk/)

To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see:
NEPAL CROP MAKES JAPANESE BANKNOTE PAPER(https://www.coinbooks.org/v27/esylum_v27n16a23.html)