A Japanese finance minister not linked to exporters?

Likely Japanese finance minister Fujii commented that "it is not right" to weaken yen to benefit exporters and that the government must refrain "in principle" from intervention.

"If some countries devalue their currencies again and again, others will follow suit to protect their competitiveness. So there are rules regarding foreign exchange, and we must abide by them," Mr. Fujii said. "From that perspective, I think it's a wrong policy for a nation to just weaken its currency to boost its exports."

He added, "There could be cases where some steps would be taken when there are abnormal, speculative money flows. But in principle, we must not take such action."

- From WSJ Sept 16.

These comments took some pressure off yen from rising. The last time Japan intervened in the currency markets was in 2003 through March 2004 when approximately 35 trillion yen was used to hold the yen decline. The line was held at 120 for most of 2003 and then ended at lows of 105 in Spring 2004. We are currently off the mid80's lows and hovering round 91. This is a lot lower and been rough on exporters during this global decline. Surprisingly, the Nikkei is up 17.88% while the Topix is up only 9.34% this year. Large exporters have done better.

You still have to be nervous when the yen gets down to these levels that we will be seeing a rebound as money moves out of the country and growth picks up. large manufacturing is positive and industrial production is starting to inch higher, up 2.1 MOM but still down 22.7 YOY.