The Japanese Finance Minister caused a bit of a stir this week when he suggested the country would be willing to risk friction with the United States by taking steps to deliberately weaken the yen if necessary.

The US Treasury criticised Japan in December for selling the yen at times of low market volatility. Tensions have been stirring between the two global economic powers since.

Now, Jun Azumi has made it clear that he is willing to put his country’s interests ahead of everyone else in a bid to keep Japan’s economy as stable as possible. The United States are unlikely to be impressed.

This fallout follows some positive recent news for the Japanese economy, as it grew for the first time in a year, expanding at an annualised rate of 6% in the third quarter of 2011.

It was welcome news for an economy which was hit particularly hard by the earthquake and tsunami disasters that devastated significant parts of the country’s manufacturing industry.

Martin Schulz, Senior Economist at Fujitsu Research Institute in Tokyo, was effusive about the results.

“Having something as strong as hoped for (in terms of the economic results) is really good news,” suggested Schulz. “Basically all parts of the economy were expanding. And this is extremely important because we see a slowdown internationally, which is already hitting the exports.”

The news was not entirely positive though.

“The situation surrounding our economy is becoming tougher as we see the recovery in overseas economies weakening and face the impact of the Thai flood, in addition to the Yen’s rapid rise,” said Motohisa Furukawa, the Economic and Fiscal Policy Minister.

Transfer Money to Japan

If you are looking to invest in Japan, think carefully about how you will be transferring money to Japan. Foreign currency exchange rates quoted by banks are not usually the best way to send money abroad.

So if you are sending money to Japan – which you will inevitably have to do if you are looking to make a property investment, be sure to compare the market before you buy your overseas currency.