Yen Sinks Below the Turkish Lira on Real Effective Rate, Reviving 'Strong Yen' Nostalgia

Why This Topic Landed in Japan

The headline number — Japan's currency, on a real effective basis, falling below the Turkish lira — punctures a self-image that Japanese savers and salarymen still half-believed. Boards lit up because the line crystallizes what people already feel in supermarkets: imported food, fuel, and durable goods are draining household budgets even as the Nikkei prints highs. Robin Brooks's post became the spark, but the fuel was a decade-plus of deferred discomfort about wages, FX policy, and an export model that no longer flatters domestic life.

Key Reaction Themes

• The "strong yen era" is now treated as the lost peak — Posters who once cheered the end of deflation now openly mourn the 1 USD = 75 JPY years, reframing yen strength as a feature, not a bug. The mood reads as historical revisionism in real time.
• Headline numbers vs. lived inflation — Even readers who understand that "weakest currency" is a real-effective comparison say it doesn't matter: food and energy prices are what hit households, and equity rallies don't reach them.
• Policy demands have gotten specific — Cut the food consumption tax to 1%, scrap the renewable-energy surcharge, return FX intervention gains on US Treasuries to taxpayers. The shift from venting to itemized asks is notable.

What Japanese Netizens Are Saying

• "Fifteen years ago: 75 yen to the dollar, 102 to the euro, 120 to the pound. We were the strongest currency."
• "Now the yen is worth half. Sorry we collapsed."
• "It was the public who hated the strong-yen deflation era. Sure, the Nikkei was at 8,000 and the economy was dead."
• "On the real effective rate the yen is now below the Turkish lira. Weakest currency in the world."
• "No Japanese person gets paid in dollars, so it doesn't matter — except for the part where import prices say otherwise."
• "Only food and energy are going up. Cut consumption tax and trim the renewables surcharge — that solves it."
• "Even cutting the food consumption tax from 8% to 1% would meaningfully help low-income households."
• "There are intervention profits sitting on US bonds. Hand them back to the public."
• "Necessities are getting hammered directly. Real life is just hard right now."
• "The yen refusing to defend itself fills me with rage."
• "Only certain stocks are up. The Nikkei rises and my own portfolio shrinks."
• "Sure, the logic works if your life is fully domestic — but Japan is far too import-dependent for that to hold."