TOKYO—The total amount of money circulating in Japan rose at the slowest annual pace in 19 months in November, as firms and households saw less need to hoard cash with the economy emerging from the initial shock caused by the COVID-19 crisis. The data underscores how Japan’s economy is normalising from last year’s pandemic crunch, and will likely be among data the Bank of Japan will scrutinise in debating next week whether to phase out pandemic-relief fund schemes. Japan’s M2 money stock, a measure on the total amount of money available in the economy, rose 4.0 percent in November from a year earlier, Bank of Japan data showed on Thursday, slowing from a 4.2 percent gain in October. It was the smallest annual increase since a 3.7 percent gain in April last year. The average amount of cash, at 1,175.8 trillion yen ($10.34 trillion), hit a fresh record, as the …