In that case, the Yen gaining in value is a boon to Sony and Nintendo. Getting more Yuan per Yen is a good thing, no?

The only thing this hurts is goods and services produced or rendered IN Japan. Namely, the Capcoms, Squeenixs, and Nacmos of the world (also Sony and Nintendo to a smaller extent). Nintendo was probably talking about their game studios and overall infrastructure, which is definitely heavily Japan-based (much more so than Sony, it seems).

I know they made big profits. With a good exchange rate, they could have made 'huge' profits.

I don't know why people believe that for an exporting nation, as is Japan, it's good to have a strong yen. It's the worst thing that could happen to exporting companies as Sony or Nintendo are.

What happened to Rover and Jaguar? Strong pound and very high labor cost in comparison with other countries made their cars uncompetitive. The same happens to Japanese companies when you compare them with Korean, Chinese or American companies if you have a strong yen.

Why don't their government do something to the yen to be a weaker currency? They already have near to zero interest rates, which weakens the exchange rates. The only thing they can do is print money, dilute its value, so it weakens, but this policies have a problem, and it's inflation. Japan has a very long crisis with low or negative growth, the last thing they need is inflation, so it's a lose/lose situation for Japan's economy.

(It's not that they are in the worst situation, my country, Spain, is in a much worse one)

Yep. Japan has big economic problems. A increase in export is the best solution for it. A (even) stronger Yen hurts it bad. Real bad actually!

A lot of ignorant people responded, so this goes for all of you.

The Yen is at a 15 year high because their economy is doing better than ours.  The value of currency is dependent on the the perceived value of a country's economy, or more specificaly the perceived ability for a country to pay back its debt.

It should be obvious that increased value in currency increases exports and decreases imports.  When a country's currency value increases, domestic goods increase in cost in other markets, decreasing the demand for that good.  Simultaneously, foreign goods decrease in cost, increasing demand.

I didn't saw your post when I wrote my answer. There is a difference in the Japanese debt and American or Spanish debt, and it's the nationality of the bond holders. Most of the Japanese debt it's at the hands of Japanese people, but most of the American debt is in Chinese hands, and most of Spanish debt is in German, British and French hands. You can beg sacrifices to your own people, but I'm sure that the Chinese bond holders won't make too much sacrifices for the good of America's economy.

*There is something people don't see in Spanish situation. It's true that we don't have a huge government debt, in absolute terms. The real problem is that every Euro our government gets in taxes, they spend two, the other one borrowed. We have a huge public sector, with duplicated administrations, and too much public workers. And over that, we have an enormous private debt, so the situation is much worse than most people believe, even here.

Thank you for your kind words ;) There is a problem with your reasoning. Read back your last paragraph, it doesn't make any sense. If your currency is stronger, it decreases exports, because it costs more to the weaker currency owners. It's simple.

lol you don't have to come off as such a dick/knowitall. You could have explained that without saying he has no clue about basic economic facts.

Nobody is impressed by internet tough guys or internet smart guys.

When I explained it in the second sentence thats what I said, but I got my three increases and decreases mixed up.  It should read:

It should be obvious that increased value in currency decreases exports and increases imports.  When a country's currency value increases, goods produced in that country increase in cost in other markets, decreasing the demand for that good.

First of all, Japan's currency is increasing in value with respect to the American dollar, so their economy can still be doing badly, it just has to be doing better than America's economy.  The increase in Japanese currency means that the market is valuing Japan's economy higher than America's economy.

Do you have any idea what causes currency to fluctuate?  Why would the market increase the value of Japanese currency if they were doing poorly?  Your argument makes about as much sense as saying that the value of stock in Enron should have increased before the company declared bankruptcy and closed.

"Enron is closing its doors tomorrow, buy stock while you still can!"

LOL@U