The U.S. Treasury and Japan's finance ministry worked together last week to prop up the value of Japan's currency. The two countries reportedly bought tens of billions of dollars of Japanese yen to stop a slide that began in early May. They needed to, said Kathryn Dominguez, professor of economics and public policy at the University of Michigan. Japan is "a large importer of a lot of goods, most importantly oil," she said, and a weaker yen increases the price of those imports for Japan. She added that the reason for the US to keep the dollar from getting too strong against Japan's yen is its own trade. "If the dollar strengthens, that hurts US exports on world markets and makes imports more attractive.
