G7 says Japan playing by currency rules

Indeed they are: the rules at the moment are currency debasement. Any major country that says they aren't doing it are lying. Pity any of us who actually live a prudent life and save money though, as they're trying to inflate us all into oblivion.

“It’s a bit like the pot calling the kettle black,” said Simon Derrick, senior currency strategist

in japan they say : "Akashingo wo minna de watareba kowakunai" it appears that US is not happy with G7 outcome and it is likely G13 (G20 minus G7) will raise objection to currency manipulations during Sept. meeting. or correction might take place after Upper House election in Japan in July, 2013.

Rates have been manipulated by speculators since they have been floated. We know the speculators lead some countries near to bankruptcies. I have a strong doubt about the system of floating currencies. All the governments have rights to protect them from rogue speculators.

Every country should do the same as japan. "Kill" their currency. It's all so much nonsense but it's the ordinary people who will pay for Abe's "policies" when massive inflation hits japan. Wages down, prices up, even the lethargic shoganai Japanese might have something to say about this.

Of course. Too bad the people who voted my negative on the other article are not able to see that what's good for the goose is good for the gander. One country can't print all he money it wants and tell the others not to. I hope Japan is able to make this new monetary policy work some how.

No country has complaint when Japanese Yen was over value. Its look like Japanese Yen had been systematically pushing up (over value) by some of G7 for Japanese goods uncompetitive in overseas market in the past. I believe they should introduce new standard exchange rate as fixed currency exchange rate for future. I think JPY should be fixed exchange rate at US$ 1 = JPY 120. US$ 1 = JPY 120, EURO 1 = US$ 1.50 and GBP 1 = US$ 1.7

@ Kobuta Chan - pegged exchange rates? That sounds like a leap forward ...to the 1950s!

pray tell, umbrella-kun, when will this "massive inflation" that you speak of hit Japan and what will the rate be? A whopping 2%? By the way, major corporations have already increased wages or increased bonuses (ex 7-i holdings). I am set to receive around 6000 yen more per month, starting this month. It's only about a 1% increase in salary, but it's a start.

One country can't print all he money it wants and tell the others not to.

Just what country in the G-8 are printing all the money it wants? It would be counter-productive and cause hyper-inflation and destabilize the entire world if even one member of the G-8 did that?

Why point fingers and accuse someone just for the sake of it?

No country has complaint when Japanese Yen was over value

Not even Japan complained, so what does that tell you? And it all depends on who you talk to when you say "over valued".

kickboardMay. 12, 2013 - 10:16AM JST

By the way, major corporations have already increased wages or increased bonuses (ex 7-i holdings).

No they haven't, the shunto has already finished for 2013 and although some companies increased bonuses, very few increased base salary. 7-i was the exception and the pay rise was only for their part time workers. The next hope of pay increases is not until March 2014, with the next round of the shunto. By then, resource/fuel inflation will have really kicked in and the major corporations will be trying to limit increasing the prices of their products by 'cost cutting' measures, which is Japanese speak for not paying overtime and lowering base salaries.

I am set to receive around 6000 yen more per month, starting this month. It's only about a 1% increase in salary, but it's a start.

I don't know which is least believable, that your on Y600,000 a month or that you just got Y6000 a month pay rise.

I am set to receive around 6000 yen more per month, starting this month. It's only about a 1% increase in salary, but it's a start.

1 percent yearly perhaps?

A good 35% of the Japanese workforce is going to be taking home more a lot more pay this year than last. The rest are getting 1% raises and a very small percentage will be making less money.

UpgrayeddMay. 12, 2013 - 11:48AM JST

A good 35% of the Japanese workforce is going to be taking home more a lot more pay this year than last. The rest are getting 1% raises and a very small percentage will be making less money.

It seems the statistics don't agree with you

Households have still not seen the benefits of the weaker yen. The total cash income of households in March decreased by 0.6 percent over March 2012, the second straight month for such a decline. http://ajw.asahi.com/article/economy/business/AJ201305110059

and like I said, the next round of shunto is not until March 2014, so no one will be getting a pay rise in their existing job until then.

dog, shall I take a picture of last month's pay slip and post it on JT? I average around half a million yen after taxes per month. Also, my pay raise is not exactly 6000 yen, but somewhere in that range (I'll know once I get paid next month). 6000 yen is 1.2% of 500,000 yen, so I don't understand what is so difficult to believe about those figures.

Dog, you should know better, people believe what the news show pundits and newspapers tell them!

so I don't understand what is so difficult to believe about those figures.

Because that is WELL above and beyond the average salary of the overwhelming majority of Japanese workers AND foreign workers in Japan.

Back in the "bubble" era I took home at least that much as a contracted employee at a major Japanese corporation, however those days of paying "us" gwaijin that much are pretty much long gone.

If you make that much, working for a Japanese corporation, I am surprised you have time to sit here on JT and comment about it and are not at work!

YubaruMay. 12, 2013 - 01:27PM JST

Because that is WELL above and beyond the average salary of the overwhelming majority of Japanese workers AND foreign workers in Japan.

Ditto......................

Add that in a post last month he was talking about his wife dropping a kid and the wife's family monetary gifts got him out of a tight spot. Y600,000 a month is a senior manger's salary working in a Japanese corporation for 20+ years.

Have to keep in mind that Tokyo vs everywhere else in Japan wages are skewed.

and like I said, the next round of shunto is not until March 2014, so no one will be getting a pay rise in their existing job until then.

Why on god's earth that Shunto results of 2013 would get reflected on household income for March of 2013? Lol

As others have stated, majority of the big firms have either accepted full bonus, general increases, and/or in some occasions, base increases.

https://www.e-sanro.net/2013shunto/

When I first came to Japan 5 years ago the yen was close to 120. How on earth did your company survive before the yen dropped below 100?

UpgrayeddMay. 13, 2013 - 03:11PM JST

When I first came to Japan 5 years ago the yen was close to 120. How on earth did your company survive before the yen dropped below 100?

7 Years Ago.

Most of the clients were domestic - car industry, ship/cargo building and soft drinks/cans - and that was fine because there was a lot of demand.

China didn't have a steel industry worth talking about and for their domestic market, they couldn't supply quality steel.

The Korean steel industry was, in tech terms, behind Japan's steel industry.

Now.

A lot of Japanese manufacturing is taking place outside Japan and is never coming back.

China is flooding the market with pretty good quality steel and no matter how cheap the Yen gets, the Japanese cannot compete with them on price.

Korea now produces better quality steel and larger amounts of it at a better price, because their factories are more modern than nearly anything in Japan.

UpgrayeddMay. 13, 2013 - 03:11PM JST

When I first came to Japan 5 years ago the yen was close to 120.

20 years ago the Japanese Yen was about Y100 to the dollar.

The Y120 to the dollar was an artificial low rate attained by BOJ Japanese currency intervention to weaken the Yen. It was never a real rate determined by the market.

Perhaps it's time for you to change industries.

UpgrayeddMay. 13, 2013 - 04:22PM JST

Perhaps it's time for you to change industries.

And there you have the crux of Japan's economic problems.... it's structural and very quickly becoming fiscal.

Abenomics is an attempt to regain a long gone past of cheap Yen rocketting an export led economy that sustains a mundaine inefficient anachronistic domestic economy.

It's going to end in tears.

Only if he fails in getting his deregulation plans implemented. The third "arrow" of Abenomics that should come after the election.

UpgrayeddMay. 13, 2013 - 07:32PM JST

Only if he fails in getting his deregulation plans implemented. The third "arrow" of Abenomics that should come after the election.

Agreed, but if Koizumi couldn't implement the economic restructuring that was expected, as part of the G7 2002 Faustian deal of a weak Japanese yen, and he's three times the man 'toilet boy' is, what chance does 'toilet boy', who ran away last time because of irritable bowel syndrome, have of implementing the third arrow?

Besides the first 2 arrows were not a solution to anything, and never were meant to be, they were/are the usual LDP solution of kicking the can down the road,

The third arrow is everything.

20 years ago the Japanese Yen was about Y100 to the dollar.

It was around 116-118.

http://www.murc-kawasesouba.jp/fx/past_3month_result.php?y=2003&m=5&d=13&c=165219

http://www.boj.or.jp/statistics/market/forex/fxdaily/ex2003.htm/

The Y120 to the dollar was an artificial low rate attained by BOJ Japanese currency intervention to weaken the Yen. It was never a real rate determined by the market.

In your own mind. As Upgrayed stated, even Y120 level was considered "endaka" and is when the MOF intervened as Miyazawa did this in June of 1999 and Shirakawa in September of 2001, May of 2002, and capped it off with the Mizoguchi Taylor intervention in 2003-2004.

nigelboyMay. 13, 2013 - 10:54PM JST

It was around 116-118.

Wrong again.

1994-07-01 98.4450 1994-08-01 99.9404 1994-09-01 98.7743 1994-10-01 98.3530 1994-11-01 98.0440 1994-12-01 100.1824 1995-01-01 99.7660 1995-02-01 98.2368 1995-03-01 90.5196 1995-04-01 83.6895 1995-05-01 85.1127 1995-06-01 84.6355 1995-07-01 87.3970 1995-08-01 94.7383

http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/data/EXJPUS.txt

nigelboyMay. 13, 2013 - 10:54PM JST

It was around 116-118.

NOT ONCE IN 1994, DID THE YEN REACH Y116 TO THE US DOLLAR, LET ALONE Y118.

http://www.quandl.com/IMF-International-Monetary-Fund/EXCH_USD_JPY-Exchange-Rates-Japanese-Yen-vs-U-S-Dollar

Dog. You are correct. I was a decade off.

Why are you looking at 1994 when we were talking about 1993?

Why are you looking at 1994 when we were talking about 1993?

That's true as well. May of. 1993 was 107 to 111. Since Dog took the 1994 figures, might as well use the 1992 figures as well which was at 120 level.

UpgrayeddMay. 14, 2013 - 07:54AM JST

Why are you looking at 1994 when we were talking about 1993?

That's what happens, when you use the Heisei calander all day, my mistake, it is 2013 and not 2014.

Well I'm a year younger than I thought!