Episode 32: How much does one piece of konjac cost?

When you hear "one sheet of konjac," what comes to mind when you think of salmon roe?
50 yen? 100 yen? Right?
Actually, among politicians, "one konnyaku sheet" is used as slang to mean 1 million yen.
The origin of this custom is said to come from the fact that the size and thickness of a stack of 1 million yen bills resemble a sheet of konjac, and that when you shake it up and down, it becomes squishy like konjac.

More recently, during a press conference in 2017 regarding the Moritomo Gakuen scandal, Representative Yoshitada Konoike famously said, "I don't know if it was money, konjac, kamaboko, or uiro."

Incidentally, a 10 million yen item is called a "brick," and a 100 million yen item is called a "cushion."
The reason it's called "brick" is apparently because it's made by stacking 10 bundles of 1 million yen each and binding them with vertical and horizontal strips, making it as hard as a brick.
The origin of the term "zabuton" (a type of cushion used in Japanese parlors) seems to be that the size of a zabuton (5-12 cm thick, roughly square with sides of 40-60 cm) is similar to the size of a stack of 100 million yen bills.

Did you know?

Reference: Fukuoka Prefectural Newspaper http://www.fk-shinbun.co.jp/?p=17250
From Asahi Shimbun Digital: https://www.asahi.com/articles/ASK317F35K31UTIL057.html
Readable in 1 minute!! [What's the difference?] https://lowch.com/archives/15060
Japanese Slang Dictionary http://zokugo-dict.com/10ko/konnyaku.htm