Word: yen
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...billion and West Germany's $57 billion. Both were records. Japan's trade surplus with the U.S. alone last % year stood at $51.5 billion and West Germany's at about $16 billion. Trade figures released in Tokyo last week showed that despite the dollar's long decline against the yen, Japanese exports to the U.S. actually increased by 23.5% last year, to $80.5 billion...
...September for $620 million. Shuwa also recently purchased New York City's ABC building (price: $174 million). Japanese investments in U.S. real estate could reach $5 billion this year, more than three times the 1985 level. Main reason: the dollar has weakened by 38% since early 1985 against the yen, making even tall American office towers a relative bargain...
Still, not all Japan's troubles can be traced to the yen. Some of the country's older industries, including steel, shipbuilding and coal mining have been declining for the better part of a decade. One reason: they face fierce competition from what economists call the newly industrialized countries, like South Korea, Taiwan and Brazil. The NICs compete largely by paying lower wages. The average hourly salary of a South Korean steelworker, for example, is one-sixth the level of his Japanese counterpart...
...year-old shipbuilder, Hakodate Dock, was once the largest employer in the city of Hakodate. Now the company has no orders at all for next year and beyond. In shipbuilding, as in steel, the most forceful challenge comes from South Korea, whose currency, unlike the yen, is pegged to the dollar. South Korea's share of world shipping is expected to climb by year's end from 10.7% to 28.4%, while Japan's portion will drop from 49% to 41%. Says Kazuichi Murai, director of planning at the Shipbuilders' Association of Japan: "It's warfare...
Japanese manufacturers, for their part, are maneuvering to meet the challenges that have been posed by a strong yen and weakening exports. Companies are increasingly purchasing parts from low-cost foreign suppliers or & moving production to such cheap-labor countries as South Korea, Singapore and Taiwan. Many manufacturers are opening plants in the U.S., in part to avoid restraints imposed on imports...