The plot is sinister: Officials in Washington conspire to keep the dollar low and force Japanese authorities to intervene in the exchange market to buy the US currency -- not to save vulnerable Japanese exporters from the dangers of a high yen, but to keep the American economy from sliding.
This story line from a top selling comic book in Japan is entertaining and delightfully implausible. Nonetheless, it highlights growing fears here over currency fluctuations.
PHOTO: AP
There's little doubt that if the yen rises too much against the dollar, Japan's fragile export-driven recovery could sputter. Prices for Japanese products abroad would soar and earnings of major companies would plunge.
It's true that Japanese authorities have been dipping into the market for months. They have been spending a fortune buying and bolstering the value of the dollar while keeping the yen lower.
Now that dry economic reality has been turned inside out to become improbable fictional fodder for fans of Golgo 13 -- a "manga" action hero serial that's featured in the weekly Big Comic magazine.
Manga is a style of comic wildly popular in Japan among adults as well as children. The main character of Golgo 13 is a macho sniper-assassin, whose weekly illustrated exploits reflect the big social, political and financial changes on the world scene.
In the latest three-part series he's caught up in the center of a dramatic battle between the yen and dollar.
In the real world, analysts say there's no doubt Japan's shopping spree for dollars is helping the US economy.
"It's keeping US interest rates low and helping push up American share prices," says Mamoru Yamazaki, economist at Barclays Capital Japan in Tokyo.
But Yamazaki believes the intervention campaign has been excessive, fueled by exaggerated fears about a surging yen among Japanese officials and media.
"Sometimes a strong yen can be a good thing, like from a consumer's point of view," he said, referring to how a strong yen would push down import prices. "Excessive intervention is distorting the market."
The Japanese authorities spent a record ¥20 trillion (US$182 billion) to intervene in the currency market last year to curb the dollar's slide. They spent about ¥10 trillion (US$91 billion) in the first two months of this year alone.
Even so, the dollar has fallen more than 10 percent from last year to ?105 levels in February but has recovered lately to above 110 yen. All the while, Japan has been aggressively snatching up US Treasury bonds to keep their currency from getting too strong.
Japanese officials continue to brush aside speculation that interventions may be finally ebbing.
The dollar fell in Tokyo early yesterday amid continued speculation that Japan would ease up on its interventions. The greenback bought ?108.84 at 11am yesterday, down ?0.78 from late Tuesday in Tokyo but above the ?108.78 it bought in New York later that day.
It's hardly the dialogue of an action hero. But the creators of Golgo 13 have spiced things up.
In it high-profile Washington figures, including one apparently inspired by National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, are depicted as intensely worried about the dollar's possible plunge.
An overly weak dollar will not only set off a job exodus to China and India but will cause capital to flee from America, they fret.
The story suggests that the US has concocted a diabolical trap to force Tokyo to cough up a massive amount of cash to finance ballooning US deficits while preventing a crash in US Treasuries.
Beijing’s continued provocations in the Taiwan Strait reveal its intention to unilaterally change the “status quo” in the area, the US Department of State said on Saturday, calling for a peaceful resolution to cross-strait issues. The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) reported that four China Coast Guard patrol vessels entered restricted and prohibited waters near Kinmen County on Friday and again on Saturday. A State Department spokesperson said that Washington was aware of the incidents, and urged all parties to exercise restraint and refrain from unilaterally changing the “status quo.” “Maintaining peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait is in line with our [the
EXTENDED RANGE: Hsiung Sheng missiles, 100 of which might be deployed by the end of the year, could reach Chinese command posts and airport runways, a source said A NT$16.9 billion (US$534.93 million) project to upgrade the military’s missile defense systems would be completed this year, allowing the deployment of at least 100 long-range Hsiung Sheng missiles and providing more deterrence against China, military sources said on Saturday. Hsiung Sheng missiles are an extended-range version of the Hsiung Feng IIE (HF-2E) surface-to-surface cruise missile, and are believed to have a range of up to 1,200km, which would allow them to hit targets well inside China. They went into mass production in 2022, the sources said. The project is part of a special budget for the Ministry of National Defense aimed at
READY TO WORK: Taiwan is eager to cooperate and is hopeful that like-minded states will continue to advocate for its inclusion in regional organizations, Lai said Maintaining the “status quo” in the Taiwan Strait, and peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region must be a top priority, president-elect William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday after meeting with a delegation of US academics. Leaders of the G7, US President Joe Biden and other international heads of state have voiced concerns about the situation in the Strait, as stability in the region is necessary for a safe, peaceful and prosperous world, Lai said. The vice president, who is to be inaugurated in May, welcomed the delegation and thanked them for their support for Taiwan and issues concerning the Strait. The international community
COOPERATION: Two crewmembers from a Chinese fishing boat that sank off Kinmen were rescued, two were found dead and another two were still missing at press time The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) was yesterday working with Chinese rescuers to find two missing crewmembers from a Chinese fishing boat that sank southwest of Kinmen County yesterday, killing two crew. The joint operation managed to rescue two of the boat’s six crewmembers, but two were already dead when they were pulled from the water, the agency said in a statement. Rescuers are still searching for two others from the Min Long Yu 61222, a boat registered in China’s Fujian Province that capsized and sank 1.03 nautical miles (1.9km) southwest of Dongding Island (東碇), it added. CGA Director-General Chou Mei-wu (周美伍) told a