The Japanese government has announced plans to issue a new banknote that features a Japanese historical figure who was at the vanguard of economic exploitation of Korea during the colonial era.

Deputy Prime Minister Taro Aso held a news conference Tuesday and unveiled the design of several new bills. The ten-thousand-yen bill will include the image of Meiji-and Taisho-era industrialist Eiichi Shibusawa.

Shibusawa is considered by many to be a symbolic figure of the economic plundering of the Korean Peninsula.

He also headed the Keijo Electric Company, the predecessor of South Korea's current state-run Korea Electric Power Corporation. Eiichi's image was also used on Japanese banknotes issued around the turn of the 20th century.

Some observers speculate that Tokyo's latest move to showcase a key figure from the Imperial Japan era reflects the Shinzo Abe administration's historical revisionist stance that denies or whitewashes the country's past wrongdoings. 

The ten-thousand-yen bill is worth about 100-thousand Korean won and is the highest denomination among Japanese monetary bills.