Chapter 427: The World of All Living Beings
When Xiao Ri saw that everyone in the American country was unhappy, he felt a little scared.
Although there are constant trade frictions between the two countries, China has never thought of existing independently from the United States.
After all, looking at the American troops everywhere in Japan, you will know what to choose.
It can be said that the two countries were not on an equal footing from the very beginning, and Neon has always existed as a vassal.
Now everyone in the United States has begun to dislike Japan, so the Japanese government sent Shintaro to the United States to find out the situation.
The third companion Shintaro is the father of the former prime minister who was shot twice and taken away by the outlaw maniac.
At this time, Shintaro Sanpei served as Japan's Foreign Minister, and it was his duty to handle diplomatic affairs.
However, after arriving in the United States this time, what Shintaro saw and heard was far beyond his expectations.
On the streets of Washington, he saw a sign hanging in front of a store.
"No Japs Allowed!"
Japs is a discriminatory name used by Americans to refer to the Japanese. At first glance, it seems to be the abbreviation of Japanese, but it is not.
The real meaning of Japs is Japan + Apes! Together they mean Japanese monkeys!
So the billboards say, "No Japanese monkeys allowed!"
When the escort Shintaro saw this sign, he was so angry that he almost wanted to go up and argue with the store owner. This was a very insulting word.
However, this was not the only thing that made him lose his guard. Those old members of Congress even secretly called him "japs" in private.
But the more this happened, the less willing Shintaro was to act.
After a lot of flattery with smiles and bows, the new US Treasury Secretary Baker finally revealed the US bottom line to him.
That is, "The yen appreciates, the dollar depreciates!"
Well, now it’s clear what the American dad meant.
Upon receiving the news, Sanpei Shintaro immediately returned to Neon and conveyed the wishes of the US government.
So, do Japan agree with what the United States means?
This issue is somewhat complicated. The cabinet headed by Nakasone was carrying out economic privatization reforms and implementing a "small government" plan.
Last year, the communications industry was reformed from a government monopoly to private liberalization, which was the work of the Nakasone Cabinet.
Therefore, the fact that Japan Unicom, a subsidiary of Shirakawa Holdings, was able to successfully obtain a license this year is also thanks to this policy.
At the same time, Nakasone hoped to transform Neon's economic wealth into the more ambitious goal of international prestige.
That’s why the famous slogan was put forward, “A strong Japan must be supported by a strong yen!”
This shows that in terms of official attitude, the Japanese government is actually not opposed to the appreciation of the yen.
And they also realize that the current trade situation is indeed somewhat abnormal. If the United States continues to have a trade deficit, the final result for Japan, as a vassal, will definitely not be a good one.
Therefore, in order to keep doing business, most people in Japan tend to make slight concessions to the United States.
The only ones who might be opposed would be some people within the Ministry of Finance. As the central agency in charge of Japanese finance, some of them certainly understand what the appreciation of the yen means.
This means that the export competitiveness of neon products will decline in the future, and a series of uncontrollable factors will slowly emerge.
However, at the critical moment, Keidanren voted in favor.
The full name of Keidanren is the Japan Business Federation.
All of its members are chaebols, including Mitsui, Mitsubishi, Sumitomo, Fuji... all the way to Shirakawa Holdings, which covers all the chaebols of scale in Japan.
So this is a super large joint chamber of commerce whose members are mainly chaebols, and its president is known as the head of the financial world.
It is easy to imagine how powerful and influential Keidanren is. It is no exaggeration to say that it accounts for more than 60% of Japan's total output value.
Before the formal vote in Congress, there was also a vote within Keidanren, and Shirakawa Kaede voted in favor.
Nonsense, as long as possible, Baichuan Feng hopes to blow the bubble bigger.
Anyway, it’s better for me to die than for my friend to die.
Not to mention that most people within Keidanren think so, especially the large valve companies that are in charge.
Their business not only involves exports, but also a large amount of import demand.
For example, for energy-related companies such as Mitsui and Mitsubishi, the appreciation of the yen means that it will be much cheaper for them to import oil.
The purchase price of oil is cheaper, which means higher profits.
At the same time, as a chaebol centered on banks, they also hope to participate more comprehensively in the international financial market.
It's all about profit, so Keidanren agrees to the appreciation of the yen.
After summarizing internal opinions, the Nakasone Cabinet began to express its positive intentions to the United States.
So in the following June, July and August, Finance Minister Noboru Takeshita began to visit the United States in succession, frequently discussing the issue of the US dollar exchange rate with US Treasury Secretary Baker and others.
During this period, not only Japan attended the meeting, but also finance ministers from Britain, Germany and France gathered together to discuss related issues .
After all, the U.S. trade deficit is not only with Japan, but also with Europe.
Of course, Japan has not been idle during these three months.
The appreciation of the Japanese yen is a big deal after all. As a representative of the development of the country, Japan will not fight a battle without preparation.
During this period, the Ministry of International Trade and Industry has been doing one thing, which is to investigate the impact of the appreciation of the yen on Japan's export products.
This work is coordinated by Keidanren, after all, most industries are concentrated under their group.
The current exchange rate of the US dollar to the Japanese yen is about 1:250, after two or three months of investigation.
Starting from several industries such as textiles, steel, shipbuilding, electronics, and automobiles, we finally concluded that these industries' maximum tolerance for the appreciation of the yen is approximately between 1:155 and 1:180.
This also means that if the yen appreciates by about 34%, Japanese companies will still be able to survive.
If it gets any lower, it will be a matter of life and death.
So after comprehensive consideration, everyone agreed that the Japanese yen only needed to appreciate by 10% to 20%.
That is, if the ratio of the US dollar to the Japanese yen rises to 1:200, Japan's manufacturing industry exports will still be quite competitive.
Several trade wars in the past have taught them that as long as Japan takes a small step back, it will take big strides forward again after a brief recession.
This is also one of the reasons why Japan, as a whole, tends to favor the appreciation of the yen.
Because they are not afraid of these trade frictions at all. Besides, they have experienced the appreciation of the Japanese yen before.
In 1971, the Japanese yen appreciated by 20% at one time. After a short period of adjustment, Japan's economy continued to advance by leaps and bounds.
So the advantage is in my hands, no need to panic!
This is a strategic retreat to advance, not that Japan is afraid of its American father.
Also in June, a major event happened in the semiconductor industry.
On June 24, Micron Technology submitted a petition to the U.S. government on behalf of domestic 64K DRAM companies.
It claims that under Section 731 of the U.S. Trade Act of 1974, 64K DRAM imported from Japan is or may be sold in the United States at prices below fair value, causing substantial damage to the U.S. industry.
Soon after, Intel and other companies also filed dumping complaints against Neon's erasable read-only memories.
The reason why American counterparts suddenly launched an attack was that 1985 was also the year of the Great Depression in the semiconductor industry.
According to the cyclical recession law of semiconductors, the global semiconductor market was shrinking in 1985.
In 1980, a 64K DRAM memory chip cost $100. A year later, it dropped to $50. By 1982, it only cost $5.
And this was not the end. In 1984, its price became $3, and by the middle of this year, the price of a 64K DRAM had become $0.75.
During the same period, 256K DRAM dropped from US$31 to US$3.
At this time, the price of Neon 256K chip in the United States is US$2.6 and in Neon is US$1.7.
Not only are Japanese chips cheap, but their quality is also better than that of their American counterparts.
Not only that, Japanese manufacturers have not paid any attention to the global semiconductor market depression, but instead are expanding their production capacity.
The counter-cyclical expansion of production capacity dealt a fatal blow to their American counterparts, and a large number of semiconductor companies suffered losses and went bankrupt.
This also laid the groundwork for Intel's announcement a few months later that it would abandon its DRAM chip business, but that's a story for another time.
In short, the first half of 1985 was extremely busy, as the US and Japanese governments were busy discussing the issue of the depreciation of the US dollar and the appreciation of the Japanese yen.
The semiconductor companies in the United States and Japan are almost fighting each other.
The world of all living things is truly bizarre and unpredictable.
…
As we enter the second half of the year, we are faced with class action lawsuits filed by US companies .
The US government singled out the semiconductor item from the MOSS agreement that it had previously negotiated with Japan.
On August 8, the International Trade Commission (ITC) ruled that 64K DRAM imported from Japan may cause substantial injury to the United States.
On August 19, the United States asked NEC, Hitachi, NEC Industries (OKI) and Mitsubishi Electric Corporation to respond within 30 days.
However, the United States extended the response time in response to delayed requests from Japanese companies and the Japanese Ministry of International Trade and Industry.
Meanwhile, the time was drawing closer to September.
"Watanabe-san, Yanagiya-san, please take a seat."
In the Shirakawa Building, Shirakawa Feng took representatives from Dai-ichi Kangyo Bank and Nomura Securities to start a closed-door meeting.
They are all old acquaintances. They were the ones who manipulated Shirakawa Electric when it went public.
"Shirakawa-san, is there something important this time?"
As soon as he sat down, Ichiro Watanabe looked at the cleared meeting room and immediately asked curiously.
Judging from the situation, you can tell that the topic we are discussing today is very interesting.
Yanagidani Takashi from Nomura Securities was also a little curious, as this junior brother Shirakawa has been in the spotlight recently.
No, it should be said that Shirakawa Electric stole the limelight.
Ever since Shirakawa Electric made a splash .
The name of Shirakawa Electric is not only resounding in Japan, but also appears frequently in newspapers around the world.
Whether it is the ultra-thin and ultra-large LCD TV or the robot that can communicate with people, they have become the darlings of the world media.
It can be said that as the explosive flow of people at the World Expo gradually spread, Shirakawa Electric, which has been a well-known brand in Japan, has gradually been upgraded to a world-renowned brand.
This improvement itself does not bring any economic benefits, but the invisible wealth it brings will benefit Shirakawa Electric endlessly in the next few decades.
Improving the brand image worldwide is what many companies dream of.
This World Expo has become the best stage for Shirakawa Electric to promote itself, and this large-scale advertisement lasts for half a year and is free of charge.
The effect of this wonderful advertisement was immediate. The market value of Shirakawa Electric has climbed to fifth place, just after Sony.
With such a happy event, it is normal for Yanagiya Xiao to envy him, after all, most of Shirakawa Electric belongs to him personally.
In response to Watanabe Ichiro and Yanagidani Takashi's inquiries, Shirakawa Kaede chose to get straight to the point.
"Have you heard about the appreciation of the Japanese yen?"
Huh? Watanabe Ichiro and Yanagiya Takashi sat up straight instantly. They were busy with this matter recently.
