The Japanese currency (yen), nowadays, has depreciated by over 150¥ (23%) against the US dollar (which hadn’t happened in over 30 years).
The Bank of Japan could raise short-term rates slightly, for example by 10 basis points, thus putting an end to the country’s negative rate policy and generating a symbolic effect that would help the yen recover value.
As the elections scheduled for July 10th approach, the issue of energy has acquired an even more central role. Some argue for expanding the renewables sector, boosting the likes of Japan’s two large-scale offshore wind farms, which are still under construction and expected come into operation this year. But the crisis has reinvigorated the debate on the use of nuclear energy, a topic long avoided after the Fukushima power plant disaster in 2011. Ten years later, according to the president of the Post-oil Strategy Institute in Tokyo, Noriaki Oba , the government may try to restart idled nuclear power plants.
