Crown Prince's Wedding Commemorative Coins | 50,000-Yen Gold, 5,000-Yen Silver and 500-Yen Cupronickel

According to the Imperial Household Agency's biographies, the Imperial House Council met on 19 January 1993, the betrothal ceremony (Nōsai no Gi) took place on 12 April, and the wedding ceremony was held on 9 June. The wedding ceremony is the rite at which the couple make their marriage vows at the Kashikodokoro sanctuary.

In January 1993, the Ministry of Finance answered in the Diet that the wedding counted as a "national commemorative project" and that the types, face values and designs of the coins would be decided at a meeting of experts. That meeting was held on 22 February.

These were the first coins to commemorate a Crown Prince's wedding. None were issued when the Emperor Emeritus married as Crown Prince in 1959 (Shōwa 34). The Director-General of the Ministry of Finance's Financial Bureau gave as the reason that at that time there was no idea or practice of issuing commemorative coins. The Ministry of Finance also states that commemorative coins date from the Tokyo Olympic Commemorative 1,000-Yen Silver Coin of 1964 (Shōwa 39), and that there are none from before that.

According to the Ministry of Finance's List of Commemorative Coins, the obverse of all three coins shows two auspicious cranes: "two cranes and waves" on the gold and 500-yen coins, and "two cranes and auspicious clouds" on the silver coin. The reverse of all three shows the chrysanthemum crest and the azusa, the Crown Prince's personal emblem.

How the design was chosen was explained in the Diet. According to the Director-General of the Financial Bureau, the advisory group was split roughly in half over whether to use a portrait, but agreed as a whole on "a bright and approachable design". Taking these views into account, the Director-General said the Ministry was "currently considering" adopting the crane, an auspicious bird, as the design. He said it suited the panel's view, and that the joy in the Crown Prince's poem for the 1993 New Year Poetry Reading, beginning "Ōzora ni maitatsu tsuru no", could perhaps be reflected in the design.

This was a plan stated while the bill was being debated (21 April 1993). No record has been found that shows how the design was finally decided or states an official reason for the choice.

According to the Imperial Household Agency, the theme that year was "sky", and the Crown Prince's poem was "Ōzora ni mai-tatsu tsuru no mure nagamu osanabi yori no waga yume kanau" (in English, roughly: "Watching a flock of cranes rise into the great sky, the dream I have held since childhood comes true").

The azusa is listed in the Imperial Household Agency's biographies as the personal emblem of the Emperor (then the Crown Prince).

Under the law of the time, a commemorative coin with a face value above 10,000 yen could not be issued. The Finance Minister explained in the Diet that the government had submitted a bill so that a 50,000-yen gold coin could be issued. The Act on the Issuance of 50,000-Yen Coins to Commemorate the Marriage of Crown Prince Naruhito (Act No. 33 of 1993) was promulgated on 30 April, and the material and number were set by a Cabinet Order of the same day (Cabinet Order No. 163 of 1993). The 5,000-yen silver and 500-yen cupronickel coins were within the existing law, so their issue was decided by Cabinet Order alone.

The face value was lowered from the earlier 100,000-yen gold coins to 50,000 yen. According to the Director-General, the meeting of experts agreed almost unanimously that "it should be smaller, to meet demand among people of all walks of life". The silver coin was also set at 5,000 yen, half of the 10,000-yen silver coin for the Shōwa 60th year.

The 2,000,000 gold coins matched the number for the previous Accession gold coin. The Director-General explained that this reflected the fact that about one third of the Shōwa 60th-year gold coins had returned to the Bank of Japan. He also said the weight of 18 grams of gold was set generously relative to the face value, partly to narrow the gap between the face value and the value of the material and so reduce the incentive to counterfeit.

The 500-yen cupronickel coin was made the same size as the ordinary 500-yen coin because it might actually circulate. In the list, this wedding coin is the first 500-yen commemorative coin at 26.5 mm and 7.2 g.

In the list, the exchange start date is 4 June 1993 for the silver and cupronickel coins and 9 September for the gold coin. The silver and cupronickel coins came 5 days before the wedding ceremony, the gold coin exactly 3 months after it.

The Director-General gave two reasons for the gold coin's later date: its issue required a law, and minting took time. Production of the gold coin would begin after the law was passed and would take nearly four months, so exchange was expected in September or early autumn. The silver and cupronickel coins were timed to be ready around the wedding in early June.

As safeguards against counterfeiting, the government said the gold coin would have four features: a polished surface, small details of the design changed every set number of coins, a special treatment that machines can detect, and the use of advanced techniques from the Printing Bureau and others on part of the pack holding the coin.