Yen As Safe Haven: Familiar, Painful Refrain For Japan

A weak economy, deflation, massive public debt, negative interest rates and an ageing citizenry don't seem like good reasons for a country’s currency to surge, but that’s exactly what happened to Japan’s yen after Britain's vote to leave the European Union.

The safe-haven phenomenon is a huge headache for the Japanese government with few easy options to curb a rise that badly hurts the nation’s exporters and could tip the economy back into recession. The stronger yen was the main reason for an 8 percent drop in Japanese stocks last Friday when the Brexit vote became clear.