Japan has been trying to encourage Japanese firms to increase their M&A activity overseas to take advantage of the strong yen and potentially weaken the yen as acquirers sell it to buy companies abroad.
One example is in the press today. A Japanese firm is buying US-based Zoll Medical for $2.2 bln in cash.
M&A flows can be very important to currencies. The dollar was quite strong during the dotcom bubble as European firms, especially, scrambled to buy up US tech companies. Japan hopes it can happen again.
