Reply #17: I was thinking about the strong Yen, [View All]

[Ghost Dog]

carry-trade unwinding/unwound.

While this makes Japanese products priced in Yen expensive to export markets for Japan, particularly for the West (which is what we tend to most focus on here), I think it's worth thinking about this other, Asia-Pacific if you like, frame:

As long as Japan and China can maintain a healthy social/cultural and therefore political relationship, the strong Yen makes Japanese investment in Chinese production even more interesting to them. Japanese business can invest in China, manufacture and produce there at lower cost, and then sell not only in China and other World markets, but also back to Japan at reasonable prices for Japanese people with their strong currency and savings.

China benefits from such a stimulus to their whole economy (and one can only imagine the possible technological consequences of Chinese-Japanese brainstorming). Japan too with the one sole proviso: What about jobs for Japanese in Japan?

I think that clearly, to an increasing degree (with Japan's ageing population and social culture in general), more Japanese people will specialise in socially-oriented as well as 'intellectual' work, and, in general, work that can only be or should be for other reasons performed locally, at home.

Any thoughts?