I've been to Japan five times over the last six years and every time I take currency in the form of cash. As my bank allows choice of 'high', 'low' or 'mixed' denominations, the last time I asked for 'low' and they gave me a HEAP of 2000 yen notes.
It was amazing to see the surprised expressions and responses from Japanese staff and business owners as I whipped out a small wad of these 'rare' notes to pay for goods and services!
Kind of feels good to repatriate these notes with their mother country.