3 ms·

Why would the entity that has the Yen printing press need to look overseas for Yen?

• rluhar 13y ago
  Excellent question - they wouldn't. But firing up the printing presses would cause inflation. This is bad news when Japan is not self-sufficient for energy or for some food production.
  • kaonashi 13y ago
    Right, but if you're printing and putting people to work with it, inflation is much less of an issue (more money chasing after more goods & services). It's only when you're at your production capacity and still keep printing that you start seeing more money chasing after the same amount of goods. Japan's unemployment is ~4%, low compared to other nations, but still high historically. Their labor force participation rate is about 8% below the U.S., though. There's lots of room to put people to work.