Word: japanism
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...official: amid a bout of global financial instability not seen in years, Japan, the world's second-largest economy, has no central bank governor. Toshihiko Fukui, the current Bank of Japan (BoJ) chief, has packed his bags-his five-year term ended at midnight, March 19-and due to a political deadlock in Japan's parliament, it may be weeks before a successor is appointed...
...kind of appreciation the yen is experiencing now isn't necessarily a bad thing, says Takashi Omori, chief economist for Japan at UBS. He points to the fact that about 80% of Japanese imports are contracted on foreign currency and this would allow for savings on import costs with an appreciating yen and make up for some losses expected in export sales. He says that some Japanese firms have accumulated profits in the past years and can now be expected to live off of this while the yen stabilizes. If you take into account exchange rate and inflation, the current...
...weak dollar dumps cold water on some of Japan's largest corporations and exporters, since a higher yen value makes exports from the likes of Sony and Sharp to Toyota and Honda less competitive. On Thursday, Toyota Motor Corp. president Katsuaki Watanabe said that his company will need to maintain profit growth, since it forecast record profit for this fiscal year when the dollar was about 113 yen. For every yen the dollar drops, Toyota's operating profit falls...
...which have both become concerns due to price inflation. But because dollar-based profits from overseas will drop, corporations could cut back on capital investment and employment, which will have a spillover effect on households. "The negatives outweigh the positives," says Masafumi Yamamoto, head of foreign exchange strategy for Japan at Royal Bank of Scotland...
Others aren't that patient. "We need drastic measures to solve these problems," says Yamamoto of Royal Bank of Scotland. "Intervention may work to buy time, but it's not a fundamental solution. The authorities in Japan know this and they're hesitant to act." Finance Minister Fukushiro Nukaga did say this week that "excessive exchange rate moves are undesirable." But, in relative terms, the yen is not as weak as it was in 2004, when the government last intervened. Central bankers in Japan believe a rate of 100 yen to the dollar is not excessive appreciation but rather...