Okay so the US doesn't like something about how Japan's economy was doing in the 90s, what was the beef? I know Japan was manufacturing a ton of stuff, but I thought the US wanted consumer products manufactured overseas.

So they're not happy with this, so they do a run on Japan's currency. What does this mean? Like how do they do it?

The run on the currency causes the value of the Yen to go up. This is bad for some reason, even though your currency is worth more? Like can't you get more for a Yen? But clearly it's bad because it destroyed their economy, I'd like to understand why or how.

Because right now the best I was able to explain it to someone was "America did some money magic bullshit and destroyed Japan's economy", but I would like to be able to answer some follow up questions.

  • RNAi [he/him]
    ·
    2 years ago

    Ok, but why Japan agreed to this if it was doing so well before?

    What was the "or else" that US pulled? Did South Korea got the same treatment?

    Would the US do that again against another competitor like China?

    • CrimsonSage [any]
      ·
      2 years ago

      It's also important to keep in mind that part of the Japanese miracle was that the USA had set the Yen at an espcially low rate back after the war. This was done for several reasons, 1) as a means to boost the Japanese economy in the face of communism and a strong japanese communist party, 2) a sop to the Japanese bourgeois to get them on side and play ball as a subject state in the American empire, 3) so that japan could act as a manufacturing hub in asia for the US military. In a sense this was the USA going "alright no more special deal, you are starting to bit the hand that feeds."

      The future of the japanese economy was basically already bankrolled on the superconductor industry at that point and the accords pulled the rug out from under that by making their exports more expensive. At that point they basically switched to real estate... and well.... Thats the reason Silicon Valley was the main tech hub and not Tokyo, or whatever equivalent in Japan.

    • Assian_Candor [comrade/them]
      ·
      2 years ago

      I don’t know anything about this particular scenario but it doesn’t require anyone to “sign on” to anything, it’s the same reason the US malds about China doing “currency manipulation” ie keeping the RMB low to favor its exports vs the US