Why is the Japanese Yen almost worthless in comparison to the dollar, even though Japan is the3rd largest global economy?

Question

Why is the Japanese Yen almost worthless in comparison to the dollar, even though Japan is the3rd largest global economy?

In: Economics

Answer 1

You’re looking at it the wrong way. The denomination of the currency doesn’t matter nearly as much as how much purchasing power an equivalent amount of another currency represents. One way to look at it is the [Big Mac index](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Mac_Index) which measures how many burgers you could buy for $50US in various countries. 1USD is worth roughly 100JPY which will buy you approximately the same amount of goods and services in either country.