In the summer of 1998, the Japanese currency slid to its lowest level against the dollar since the calamitous burst of the economic bubble seven years earlier. A senior finance ministry official, Haruhiko Kuroda, cautioned that an excessive fall in the yen was negative for the Japanese economy.
Nearly one-quarter of a century later, Kuroda is the governor of the Bank of Japan and sounding a familiar refrain as the yen continues its descent through a 24-year low, again breaking the level of ¥137 against the dollar and leaving traders uncertain when the slide will stop.
“The recent rapid acceleration of the yen’s decline is not desirable,” Kuroda said last month, following discussions with Prime Minister Fumio Kishida. It was a change of tune for the central banker, who had until then suggested a weaker yen could have benefits for the economy.