Bank of Japan:

 Article Source: https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20220405/p2g/00m/0bu/031000c

Article:

 TOKYO (Kyodo) -- Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda said Tuesday the yen's

 recent depreciation against the U.S. dollar has been "somewhat rapid," ratcheting up his

 rhetoric amid concern about its negative impact on the fragile economic recovery.

The remark, made at a parliamentary session, is the strongest yet since the yen tumbled to an over six-year low in March amid the prospect of a widening monetary policy gap between the BOJ and the U.S. Federal Reserve as inflation accelerates at a different pace in the two countries.

A weak yen inflates import costs for resource-scarce Japan, but also helps exporters by boosting their overseas profits when brought back home. Kuroda has said a soft yen is positive for the economy as a whole.

Ideas:

Most likely the weak yen is not going away anytime sooon as the inflation in the US and in Japan is moving at a different rate.

As Japan and the US are using different strategies to manage inflation most likely the weak yen is here for a while.

Yes, its good for exporters and bringing more money into the Japanease economy, but at the same time, its not so good for importers which is making inflation worse. 

If it was just a weak yen, most likely importers would probably be able to absorb some or all of its costs but a weak yen with increasing raw material costs along with increasing energy costs are making very difficult for impoters now.

Article:

"Currency rate moves are somewhat rapid," Kuroda told a session of the House of Representatives.

The yen's sharp fall has fueled speculation that the government and the BOJ could step in by carrying out yen-buying, dollar-selling interventions.

Drawing on his experience as Japan's top currency diplomat, Kuroda told the session that it is difficult to measure the overall impact of interventions, whether conducted by Japan or in coordination with other nations, on the currency market.

Ideas:

Solving the inflation challenges and the weak yen challenges is like a puzzle that is not easy to solve and there are many moving parts acting at the same time.

Trying to solve or fix one problem could cause another challenge or problem to get worse.

The late Milton Friedman, from the University of Chicago, addmitted that fixing the inflation challenge is very complex and very difficult because whatever a government or central bank does has many effects on other areas of an economy.

And even if a central bank does experiment with some kind of measure there is no telling how long it take to work and how much it will work.

Article:

The recent depreciation of the yen, partly due to the BOJ's powerful monetary easing, comes as higher energy and commodity prices are casting a shadow over the economy, whose recovery from the COVID-19 fallout remains fragile.

The government plans to draw up an economic package to ease the pain for consumers, hit by higher prices amid tepid wage growth.

Ideas:

Higher energy and commodity prices are a global economic problem now and not just in Japan.

This has been an ongoing problem almost since the pandemic began. For example OPEC in 2020 or as the story goes, because of reduced global economic activities started to reduce its supply and even though there has been pressure from countries to increase the global supply of oil and gas it hasn't been able to meet the demand since the pandemic has been winding down which means a shortage in the global market.

Raw material prices increases might be attributed somewhat to the pandemic and the concurrent shipping industry challenges such as the increase in shipping delays and the increase in shipping costs effecting many producers and suppliers.

Add in the bad weather growing seasons and other challenges which might cause the increase in raw material costs.

Some might say there could be instances of price gouging meaning some companies might be trying to take advantage of market weaknesses by increasing prices and or trying to make up for their losses over two years because of the pandemic.

Article:

Kuroda said the BOJ will continue to support the economy, which has yet to fully recover from the pandemic fallout, with its monetary policy.

"We will persist with our monetary easing to ensure price gains, accompanied by increased corporate earnings and wages in a virtuous cycle, not cost-push inflation," Kuroda said.

Ideas:

Its still a good idea for the government to come up with some extra budgets, as needed, to help those in society and the economy, whether businesses or families due to the continued pandemic after-effects.

It might take a very long time for many in the economy to get back to some kind of pre-pandemic level.

The Bank of Japan and the Japanese government should work together to make sure there is  soft-landing from the pandemic. Meaning help as many as possible recover from the pandmeic after-effects.

The Bank of Japan should not follow what the US doing with an increase in interest rates and both economies have different situation and different characteristics.

What might work in the US might not work in Japan and what works in Japan might not work in the US.

Have a nice day and be safe!