Who says Britain’s global clout is in decline? With one little show of hands, little England stunned a huge stock market on the other side of the world: a 4 per cent rise in the yen sent Japan’s stock market down twice as much after the Brexit vote was confirmed. Shares in Japanese carmakers fell a tenth on Friday and losses continued on Monday, even as other exporters bounced.
Economic uncertainty in Europe is not the big issue here. The strong yen is. Nissan and Honda generate as much as four-fifths of their revenues overseas. JPMorgan says that the operating profits of the Japanese automakers will fall by an average 17 per cent should the yen stay near current levels.
European restructuring will not be free, of course. Toyota, Nissan and Honda all have manufacturing facilities in the UK. How they will respond to Brexit remains unclear. Before the vote, Nissan expressed its commitment to its investments. Toyota, after pledging to stay in the UK earlier this year, recently stressed the importance of Britain’s access to the European market. Should tariffs be erected, Toyota said, cost cutting would be likely. The company’s UK operations struggle to make a profit anyway.