Word: yen
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...trade turnaround was a long time coming, but there are finally some signs of change. Between 1982 and 1986, the value of Japanese exports jumped from $138 billion to $211 billion, partly because of the yen's 50% rise against the dollar. In 1986 alone, Japan's trade surplus rose 79% from the previous year. But last spring it began to come down. By July the surplus was nearly 15% lower than the same month the year before. Meanwhile imports, spurred by growing domestic demand for ever cheaper foreign goods, were up 30% in August, compared with that month...
...yen crisis forced manufacturers to change tactics. To reap the benefits of lower wages along the Pacific Rim, many Japanese firms built new factories offshore. Matsushita, the world's largest consumer electronics manufacturer, makes motors in Malaysia, batteries in Indonesia and facsimile machines in Singapore. Sony plans to move one-third of its production out of Japan...
...reasons for their rush to buy are abundantly clear. To start with, U.S. properties are going for unprecedentedly low prices because of the fall of the dollar. The U.S. currency has plunged some 40% in value during the past two years against such major foreign currencies as the Japanese yen, the West German mark and the British pound. The result is that while prices of real estate and commercial properties may seem high to most Americans, everything with a dollar-denominated price tag looks like a tremendous steal to holders of other, stronger currencies...
...Ichiro Hattori, 55, the president of Seiko Epson, died on a golf course in May after suffering a heart attack. In eight years as chief executive, he had built Seiko from a watchmaking company into an electronics giant. But last year profits plummeted nearly 80% because of the high yen...
...given the Japanese press a cause celebre. Story after story has likened the fallen business leaders to martyred warriors. Yomiuri Shimbun, Japan's largest daily newspaper, ran a feature under these scary headlines: SUDDEN DEATHS OF CORPORATE HEADS; DISEASE-FREE SOLDIERS UNDER HEAVY STRESS FROM RECESSION AND THE STRONG YEN. The Sunday Mainichi referred to the trend as "death in combat...