Yen (JPY)

The Japanese yen is the official currency of Japan.
The most common exchange rate on the Forex market with the Japanese currency is the dollar-yen (USDJPY).
The Japanese yen is known worldwide by the abbreviation JPY and under the symbol ¥. Below, in addition to the information, characteristics and history of the Japanese yen, there is the latest news and analysis on the trend of the yen.

The importance of the Japanese yen
The Japanese yen is the world’s 3rd most traded currency in the Forex market and the most traded in Asia. Due to its low interest rates, the Japanese yen is often used in carry trade strategies against the Australian dollar and the US dollar. The carry trade is the strategy within which the currency with low interest rates is sold in order to buy a currency with higher interest rates.

The history of the yen
The history of currency in Japan begins in the 8th century, with the spread of silver and copper coins under the name Wado Kaichin in 708.
These were created in imitation of Chinese coins, and when Japan was no longer able to issue the coin, the importation of Chinese currency into the country began.

Over the next few centuries, the inflow of Chinese money no longer satisfied Japanese demand, so new Japanese coins, the Toraisen and Shichusen, were put into circulation between the 14th and 15th centuries. Next came the minting of gold and silver coins known as Koshu Kin. The government then established a unified monetary system that featured gold, silver and copper coins.

Japanese yen today
As late as the 19th century, Spanish dollars and other local currencies were still used in Japan. In order to simplify and centralize the monetary system in use at the time, the Yen (which means ’circle’ or ’round object’) was created in 1871. The release of the new currency provided for a monetary system similar to the European one with decimal.

The Yen operated under a bimetallic standard with gold and silver until 1897, when the gold standard (also known as the gold standard) was made official.

After World War II, the yen lost much of its value and in 1971 the rate against the US dollar was set at 308 yen to 1 USD. The fixed rate on the dollar-yen exchange rate was active until 1973, when the transition to a rate with fluctuations regulated directly by the market occurred.