But America might accept a weaker yen were it combined with serious structural reforms.
It would have been better if the two leaders had indeed discussed a weaker yen.
Such extraordinary measures would almost inevitably lead to a weaker yen, which would irritate Japan's trading partners.
Investors are homing in on shares of companies that are most likely to benefit from a weaker yen.
In the meantime, a weaker yen gives Sony and the rest of Japan's exporters an easier path to recovery.
His plan to spark growth, dubbed Abenomics, is based on supporting a weaker yen and ramping up fiscal stimulus.
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For those who want to profit from a weaker yen, now is a good time to invest in currency options.
With rebuilding from the earthquake a priority, Japan favors a weaker yen.
With a weaker yen at its back, the Nikkei could regain 10, 000.
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Japanese stocks climbed amid a weaker yen, with the Nikkei up 0.5%.
That is not a reason for policymakers to resist a weaker yen.
Japan still produces some exports, such as computer memory chips, that are commodities where price matters immensely and a weaker yen might help.
Olympus's net loss narrowed as a weaker yen boosted the value of its foreign-currency assets, though soft digital-camera sales still hurt its bottom line.
And Japan's latest finance minister, Naoto Kan, has called for a weaker yen (although he received a rebuke from the prime minister for doing so).
This shows that in the past two years Japan's official position on the yen has shifted, from favoring a strong currency to advocating a weaker yen.
Still, skeptics say that expectations for Japan's revival on the back of a weaker yen and rising shares prices under Prime Minister Shinzo Abe may be overblown.
Deutsche Bank reckons that even South Korea, whose exports compete more directly with Japan than do China's, is unlikely to suffer much harm from a weaker yen.
In sum, most economic drivers of currencies are favoring a weaker yen, and both fiscal and monetary policies are set to change imminently to reinforce this trend.
Still, adds Dunne, Japan's auto sector faces growth challenges because of regional politics in Asia, global competition and a lack of innovation which a weaker yen cannot help.
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Japan's Nikkei Average bucked the trend, ending at a one-month high, as a weaker yen made its goods more affordable to overseas buyers and boosted the shares in exporters.
While a weaker yen helps exporters by making their products cheaper overseas, it can have an adverse affect on businesses like restaurants and supermarkets that need to buy imports.
Put another way, because a weaker yen equals a stronger dollar, Toyota can demand fewer dollars from its American customers to achieve the same amount of yen in profit per unit.
Elsewhere in Asia, gains were far more muted, while in South Korea the Kospi dropped 1.3%, as the market digested the impact that a weaker yen will have on South Korean exports.
Elsewhere in Asia, gains were far more muted, while in South Korea the Kospi dropped 0.8%, as the market digested the impact that a weaker yen will have on South Korean exports.
Elsewhere in Asia, gains were far more muted, while in South Korea the Kospi dropped 1.8% to 1, 944.75, as the market digested the impact that a weaker yen will have on South Korean exports.
That is because they should be among the biggest beneficiaries: A weaker yen makes Japanese-made cars and trucks less expensive around the world and helps increase overseas earnings when they are repatriated into yen.
Elsewhere on the earnings calendar, NYSE Euronext, set to be acquired by IntercontinentalExchange, beat expectations thanks to cost-cutting, while Toyota Motor rode a weaker yen and improved U.S. sales to better-than-expected results.
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Nintendo returned to net profit for the April-December period of 2012 from deep losses the previous year, but that was due to a perk from a weaker yen, which helps Japanese exporters such as Nintendo.
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