Twelve years ago, on December 22, 2012, the author argued that U.S. presidents prioritize the stock market above all else, just as China prioritizes growth and employment.
While major economies fought to raise asset values and protect jobs, Japan’s media pushed the nation in the opposite direction, allowing extreme yen appreciation (USD/JPY = 78) to devastate industry, trigger mass layoffs, and drive factories overseas.
This essay revisits the original argument: Japan’s revival required fighting the strong yen, supporting world-class corporations, expanding employment, and restoring competitiveness.

For an American president, raising the stock market is no exaggeration to call the most important national task.
Ensuring employment is equally essential.
For China’s president, raising the economic growth rate is likewise the most important objective.
Securing employment is also the same priority.
Meanwhile, Japan’s mass media have been doing the exact opposite for more than twenty years.
Even when stock prices fell to one-third of their peak, they showed no sense of crisis.
Even when daily trading volume dropped to half of the previous year, they reacted as if nothing had happened.
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Shinzo Abe made an ideal start.
If he truly wished to recover from past failure and achieve great success, he had only one task: to remain a relentless fighter against the strong yen.
He should forcefully drive the yen weaker and declare to the world that he will never retreat.
The major Japanese corporations that have long represented the nation have each sustained hundreds of thousands of jobs.
When employment stabilizes and increases, economic recovery naturally follows.
Conversely, in recent years, when even world-class Japanese giants saw their foundations shaken, went through waves of restructuring, and shifted factories overseas, economic improvement was impossible.
These companies are not robber-baron corporations; they have always sustained vast numbers of jobs.
Supporting them is essential for maintaining Japan’s industrial competitiveness and reviving the economy.
As they escape the tragic cycle of restructuring, they can maintain large-scale employment, raise stock prices, regain competitiveness, and gradually increase wages.
The logic of disposable non-regular workers should be limited to the minimum necessary.
Following correct policies by the government—by the nation—these companies should respond by gradually expanding regular employment.
By adhering to correct national policy, they will continue to grow as world-leading corporations.
This is entirely different from the non-democratic model of South Korea, where only a few conglomerates prosper.
Restoring Japan’s purchasing-power-parity level—the OECD’s benchmark of 1 USD = 111 yen—is nothing more than the natural, necessary task of a nation.
Note: At that time, due to a government without national strategy or national interest, the yen had reached a disastrous level of 1 USD = 78 yen.
In Japan, benefits do not accrue only to a privileged few conglomerates.
Nearly all manufacturing companies simply demonstrate their rightful strength and technological capability to the world—naturally and inevitably.