With Japan's currency dropping like a stone lately, familiar howls of protest can be heard from powerful players in the world economy, fa the U.S., the Big Three auto makers are complaining about the profit windfall that a strong dollar/weak yen combination gives the likes of Honda Motor Co. In China, textile and electronics exporters are lobbying their government to guard their competitiveness by cheapening the yuan. But what is most striking about this latest chapter in Japan's slow-motion economic collapse is an important shift in the way the world views Japan. For decades, when the yen has slipped too far, foreign policy makers have groused loudly about the unfair advantage it offered to Japanese companies. Now there is little of the usual protest from Washington and Beijing. Indeed, some Bush administration officials have been saying privately that a cheap yen might not be such a bad thing, provided that the Japanese also embrace tough reforms. And the Chinese aren't showing serious signs of weakening the yuan to counter the Japanese edge.
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