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Posted on 07/25/2026 6:59:54 PM PDT by EnderWiggin1970
ORLANDO, Florida, July 22 (Reuters) - As Japan's yen sinks to its lowest in 40 years, Tokyo's policy credibility in the eyes of international investors appears to be sinking too.
The dollar/yen rate, the world's second most traded currency pair, is now above 163.00 for the first time since 1986.
Why is Japan's currency so weak? Partly it is dollar strength. Most major currencies have weakened against the greenback in the last few months as a second wave of the global energy shock has reignited inflation fears, pushing up U.S. Treasury yields. While most developed market government debt has come under selling pressure, Japanese government bonds (JGBs) are particularly exposed - Japan imports around 90% of its energy, with 95% of that coming from the Middle East.
But the yen's troubles run deeper, and Tokyo's options for addressing them are limited. The yen failed to get a lift when crude oil prices tumbled 45% over May and June. And seemingly 'yen-positive' proposals from Tokyo, like the recent announcement encouraging Japanese pension funds to invest in domestic financial assets, have also failed to boost the currency.
There's always currency market intervention, and the Ministry of Finance has conducted several bouts of yen-buying since 2022, most recently a $73 billion splurge three months ago. In total, the MOF has spent around $215 billion in efforts to stop the yen's decline. These actions have bought time, but they have not engineered a lasting revival.
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
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Options for Countries like Japan, and US, for that matter:
1. Replace Americans/Japanese with Foreigners (Industrialist favorite, also the favorite of those engineering the Great Replacement)
2. Manage the Decline (Japanese plan, at least for now)
3. Turn back the clock: Limit options for women to the point where having kids is about the only reasonable option.
4. Pay Women to have Kids: It has to be REAL MONEY, enough to be competitive with the working world.
Your options 3 and 4 basically divide the “have more kids” response into either coercion or bribery. But there is another option: have a worldview that values children and has hope for the future. The Amish don’t shower mothers with money or bling; neither do they enslave them. But they have a culture that authentically values motherhood and family and children. That’s what has been lost in most cultures. The subcultures that retain it will be the survivors in the long run, much better than ones that focus on (superficial) political fixes for a much deeper problem.
“Why is Japan’s currency so weak? Partly it is dollar strength. Most major currencies have weakened against the greenback in the last few months as a second wave of the global energy shock has reignited inflation fears, pushing up U.S. Treasury yields.”
but, but, but the paid ChiCom/Russkie propaganda trolls here have been PROMISING us for years that the USD was finished and that BRICS would soon be running the global world order ...
Any good real estate bargains in decent areas?
“But there is another option: have a worldview that values children and has hope for the future.”
You do have a point, although the ONLY way to do it is in 2 steps -
1. You send the Leftists packing from ALL positions of power (or they’ll cut you off at the pass and Step 2 won’t have a chance)
2. You end government taking the place of family. No more Social Security - a big, huge, reason to have kids was to support you in old age - that has to end.
Will take a long time to undo the social engineering that led us to today. Spending on luxury goods, self pampering, deferring having and rearing children, material expectation.
but theres still Grand Sumo:
Pay women to stay with husband and have children.
“ Any good real estate bargains in decent areas?”
Lots, but you have to have income independent of location. A smaller city off the main rail lines often has some good prices on pretty nice housing. You just need to find a mid-size city that’s not on one of the main rail lines. For example, we traveled to Shikoku last May to see Matsuyama castle. The city, population of 500,000, is in an economic downturn because of closing electronic factories and shipyards, but the city itself is a nice place, and housing is very reasonable. If you don’t have to rely on the local economy, it would be a nice place to live. It’s beautiful there, and because of a great bridge, rail travel to the Shinkansen line is direct and easy.
If you want a real bargain, many remote villages will give you a house if you agree to live there for a certain time, say five years, but most of those places are fairly isolated even if they do have a train stop there.
I would imagine so based on some reading I did a few weeks ago. Apparently the lack of jobs in rural areas is serious enough that the depopulation in Japan is hitting those areas hardest, with only small numbers of agricultural workers living there along with elderly folks who don't want to move. With agricultural demand sliding due to fewer mouths to feed, and continual improvements in productivity including food produced per acre, cropland is shrinking and land is going wild.
The article I read was reporting on some surprising aspects of this process. According to studies of the land going wild, species diversity and some measures of ecological health was actually lower compared to "managed" areas. Just why this was the case, and whether it was a temporary effect, I don't recall being answered. But I suspect it is playing at least some role in the rise of bear attacks that has been in the news in Japan lately.
50 years ago it was 301 yen to the dollar...
They have virtually zero immigrants. In a way that’s a good thing, but they don’t have enough population. Something is gonna have to give.
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