Japanese military currency (Chinese and Japanese: 日本軍用手票, also 日本軍票 in short), was money issued to the soldiers of the Imperial Japanese Armed Forces as a salary. The military yen reached its peak during the Pacific War period, when the Japanese government excessively issued it to all of its occupied territories. In Hong Kong, the military yen was forced upon the local population as the sole official currency of the territory. Since the military yen was not backed by gold, and did not have a specific place of issuance, the military yen could not be exchanged for the Japanese yen. Forcing local populations to use the military yen officially was one of the ways the Japanese government could dominate the local economies.