February 25, 2014 – According to a statement of Japan’s Ministry of Finance new 1 yen coins will be produced through March 2014 for the first time in four years. Since electronic methods of payment are also in Japan increasingly popular apparently there was no strong demand of small denomination coins.
However, a consumption tax hike scheduled for April is expected to lead now to a bigger need of these coins. Therefore the Ministry will produce 26 million 1 yen coins in April. In the whole fiscal year 260 million 1 yen coins shall be minted, in addition to 100 million 5 yen coins and 10 million 50 yen coins.
The Global Post published an article on this subject.
You may find more information on the Ministry of Finance website.