Occasionally in this space I refer to a financial writer called "Gucci-san" who contributes a weekly column to Aera. Apparently, he works for an investment consulting firm that does a lot of work in mergers and acquisitions. In a recent piece he said that some of his clients are involved in importing and exporting, and while the yen rate may affect their bottom lines, it doesn't change the fees his company charges them. In other words, though the media is now getting all excited over the fact that the yen's value against other currencies is dropping slightly, "that change has no merit for me."

He then asks readers whether it will have a positive effect for them. "If your company increases exports as a result of the weakening yen and makes more profit, will your salary go up?" He's guessing it won't, since during the highest postwar growth period of 2002-07, when the yen was much weaker, salaries were stagnant and disposable income actually went down. More relevant to the average person is the cost of living, so a drop in the value of the yen has more of a direct effect "on people's wallets," says Gucci-san, especially in terms of everyday import-intensive items like food and gasoline, which will go up in price.

Despite all the coverage that blames Japan's financial woes partially on the strong yen, a weaker yen only benefits a handful of companies, but those companies spend a lot on advertising and have a huge influence on the media and, by extension, the public imagination. Whenever the yen increases in value, companies like Toyota and Sony make a lot of noise, saying they can't compete, and the government responds by spending tax money to promote sales of their products with schemes like "eco points." What the media rarely reports is that only 14 percent of GDP is dependent on exports, but business news coverage continues to focus on these big exporters as representative of Japan's problems, not so much because they are less competitive than they used to be, but because they are prominent relics of a Japan that was once ascendant. The world has moved on, but the Japanese media still thinks in terms of the 1980s.