Observer (London) - December 5, 2004
Japan threatens huge dollar selloff By Heather Stewart
TOKYO -- Japan is warning the White House that there will be "enormous capital flight" from the dollar if the Bush administration maintains its laissez-faire approach to the mounting currency crisis. Tokyo fears that Japan's strongest economic recovery in a decade could be derailed by the sudden appreciation in the yen against the greenback.
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At first glance, this seems very similar to the sorts of statements that were coming from Tokyo during the 80's: admonitions for Washington to get its house in order (a mood which perhaps reached its zenith with the publication of Akio Morita's "The Japan That Can Say No").
Yet somehow - and I make no claim to special knowledge in this area and so welcome correction - this seems much more serious; the situation, I think, has changed in ways that make this threat cast a much longer shadow.
.d.