Introduction

Why tell the history of a currency? That is an obvious question to ask at the start of a book which though not primarily a historical narrative does contain four out of six chapters whose focus is the yen’s past. After all, what happened to the yen when linked to gold or silver surely has little relevance to us understanding the situation of the modern yen. Of course there is always the unifying theme of curiosity. People visit museums to see what life was like in their cities in previous eras. In the same way Japanese today may be curious about the type of currency problems – both at a micro and macro level – that previous generations of Japanese faced. And that curiosity can extend to non-Japanese with an interest in Japan. But the aim here goes well beyond the satisfying of the historically curious – though if some satisfaction for some readers is provided on that score, then all to the good. A knowledge of yen history should help us understand the present situation of the yen in a number of ways.