Good news for those who are heading to Japan. On Friday, Japan’s central bank said it would keep its policy rate unchanged, plunging the yen to a fresh 34-year low against the U.S. dollar. The exchange rate shot up to 156 yen against the greenback, its lowest point since May 1990. In practical terms, this means that you get 55,000 yen more when you exchange NT$100,000 compared with last year, and that’s equivalent to seven trips to Tokyo Disneyland.

The numbers of yen exchanged for a greenback continue to climb upward as the currency hit a 34-year low against the U.S. dollar. On Friday, the Bank of Japan announced at its monetary policy meeting that it would maintain its current benchmark interest rate.

Kazuo Ueda
Bank of Japan governor
In today’s meeting we decided to maintain financial market policy guidelines that were determined in March, which is to promote raising short-term interest rates to 0%- 0.1%. Purchases of long-term government bonds and corporate bonds will also be conducted according to guidelines from the March meeting.

The yen has been continually depreciating as the U.S. dollar has continued to strengthen. On April 10, the U.S. announced its latest inflation and consumption data for March, which exceeded market expectations. Investors one by one sold Asian currencies including the Japanese yen, and bought greenbacks. Seeing that their exchange rate is continuing to depreciate, causing commodity prices to skyrocket, Japanese companies and people are seething with anxiety.

Member of Japanese public
The prices of many things in everyday life are constantly rising.

Member of Japanese public
Hotels have become more expensive, transportation costs are also high, and prices for foods and beverages have all increased, making dining out very difficult.

Koshiro Kudo
Asahi Kasei Corporation
The depreciation of the yen has exceeded our company’s expectations too much, and, if this continues, our overall national strength will have problems.

Since the beginning of the year, the yen has depreciated by more than 9%, making it the worst-performing currency among 10 major industrialized countries. Some analysts believe the fall could get worse and the yen could slide to 160 against the greenback, provided Japan’s central bank and Ministry of Finance stay put and do not intervene in the market.

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