Pressure to be put on Japan over interest/exchange rates?

February 4, 2007
By Ken Worsley

Last Wednesday, U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson told a Senate committee meeting that he is watching the yen’s value versus the U.S. dollar “very, very closely,” just before Mr Watanabe at the Ministry of Finance told reporters, “I don’t think the (G7 meeting) will pick up the yen weakness specifically as an agenda item.” Then, The Guardian publishes this little bit:

Japan has become the latest scapegoat for protectionist rhetoric in Washington, as Congress urges Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson to use this week’s meeting of G7 finance ministers to accuse Tokyo of fixing the exchange rate of the yen.

We later learn that US Rep John Dingell sent the President a letter last week - publicised on his website under the title, ‘Dingell to Bush: You Just Don’t Get It’ - pushing the White House to prosecute Japan for currency manipulation.

And this morning? Philip Bowring has published a piece in the International Herald Tribune entitled, “The Spineless Bank of Japan.”

Filed Under Finance