Japan Finance Minister

A new finance minister in Japan has jettisoned the DPJ’s strong yen policy. The move back to the LDP’s position reflects the deflationary concerns and the more pro-business arm of the DPJ getting an upper hand within the party. The dollar had already appreciated nearly 10% from the late Nov lows against the yen before Kan spoke about how businesses would prefer the dollar to be near JPY95. We suspect that Finance Minister Kan will have no more success than his LDP predecessors and that the yen will likely recover from its recent drubbing.