Question

Hart-Landsberg writes that, because of the high yen crisis, wages were too low in yen terms but too high in dollar terms. What does he mean by this?

Answer 1

The statement means that in a scenario of high yen crisis, yen appreciated against the other currencies and real value of yen increased. It caused less number of Yen to be given to the workers as Yen were holding higher real value. But, relatively less number of yen was going to be converted in a relatively bigger number of US dollars. So, the less number of yen paid to the workers, were able to fetch a good amount of US dollars. It made to say that wage is low in terms of yen, but high in terms of US dollars. It became the part of high yen crisis. It also negatively affected the export and economy of Japan suffered.