Word: japanism
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...With Japan's recession deepening, the country's central bank could intervene in currency markets for the first time since 2004, in a bid to prevent further appreciation of the yen - a rise that is hammering Japan's export-driven businesses...
...year high against the U.S. dollar last month. While the Japanese currency has weakened somewhat recently, Bank of Japan governor Masaaki Shirakawa said Sunday that currency-market intervention was possible if the yen's rise resumes. "The strong yen at a time of rapid decline in the global economy has a big negative impact on our economy in the short term," Shirakawa said. (See pictures of Japan and the world...
...primary concern is the financial health of major Japanese exporters such as Toyota, Honda and Sony. Many of Japan's most important companies are hurting as a result of collapsing demand and the soaring yen, which has risen 15% against the dollar over the past 12 months. A strong yen makes Japanese products more expensive, and hence less competitive, in overseas markets...
...Japan's exports declined 14.5% in November, the largest monthly drop since the country started compiling such data in 1975. Toyota recently warned that in its coming fiscal year it would suffer its first annual operating loss in the company's 70 years. The carmaker also plans to suspend production at all 12 of its Japanese factories for 11 days in February because consumers worldwide aren't buying. Masafumi Yamamoto, head of foreign-exchange strategy for Japan at Royal Bank of Scotland, says a 10% appreciation of the yen slashes the GDP growth rate by 0.3 to 0.4 percentage points...
...value has hovered at around 90 to the dollar for the past two weeks. But currency experts predict it could climb to 85 over the next few months - a level that could trigger intervention by the Ministry of Finance and the Bank of Japan, which would buy dollars in currency markets to boost the greenback and undercut the yen. Some analysts say the exchange rate could soon reach 80 yen to the dollar. That would almost certainly spark another plunge in Japan's beleaguered stock markets - another concern for Japanese authorities...