What ¥ means
Either — check the country or currency code. The same ¥ marks Japanese yen and Chinese yuan. A Tokyo menu means JPY; a Beijing shop means CNY; JPY, CNY, RMB, 円, or 元 settles it.
In file paths or code, a supposed ¥ is often a backslash drawn by a Japanese font. A 2023 Microsoft Q&A report describes backslashes showing as ¥ in Word for Mac.
Neutral price mark when the currency is clear; risky when it is not.
¥ alone is not proof of yen: in April 2023 a shopper was charged in yuan.
What it means when someone sends it to you
2 readingsJapanese listing says ¥1,680
Probably Japanese yen; confirm JPY at checkout.
Chinese storefront shows ¥1,680
Likely Chinese yuan; same mark means CNY.
Don't confuse it with
1Questions people ask
1Why does ¥ show as a box on some devices?
Because that device's fonts have no glyph for it. The character is still correct and still copies correctly — the box is a missing glyph, not a broken character.
How to type ¥
Windows (Word)
Alt+XType 00A5, then Alt+X to get ¥.
Windows
Win+Rrun charmap for the full table, or use the emoji picker's Ω symbols tab (Win + .).
macOS
Control+Command+SpaceOpen the character viewer and search “yen sign”.
Linux
Ctrl+Shift+UType 00a5, then Enter or Space.
HTML
¥CSS
\00A5Codes and encoding1 code points
HTML decimal
¥
HTML hex
¥
CSS content
content: "\00A5";
Each escape is closed by the next backslash; a trailing space is needed before a literal hex digit.
URL encoded
%C2%A5
1
On screen
1
Code points
1
JS .length
2
UTF-8 bytes
A visible symbol can contain several code points. JS .length counts UTF-16 units; UTF-8 counts bytes.