The Japanese yen (円 or 圓 en?) (sign: ¥; code: JPY) is the official currency of Japan.
This currency plays an important role in the foreign exchange market in terms of transaction volume. Nowadays, this is the third most dealt currency on the Forex, behind the euro and U.S dollar with 16.5% of transactions.
Investors have been attracted for a long time by this currency because of carry trades operations that were very profitable especially against the dollar. Indeed, Japan has always had interest rates close to 0. Today because of the crisis, investors consider more the yen as a safe currency and that is why the yen has appreciated considerably since the start of the 2008 crisis.
Because Japan is a major exporter (especially technology products), the yen also plays an important role in world trade.
