"Japan's defense of a weak yen is like a kid who always makes excuses even though he has become an adult."

A weaker yen and strong demand for its leading hypertension drug increased sales 3.6 percent in the half year.

If a weaker yen continues, it will hit ordinary Japanese as inflation.

Therefore, the rest of Asia has little to fear from a weak yen.

This may partly be because the weaker yen has proved politically popular here.

One way is to get the central bank to print more money, which should lead to a weaker yen.

A weaker yen would help Japanese exporters and the economy as a whole.

And a weaker yen makes imports into Japan more expensive.

In addition, the central bank is worried about the very weak yen, which was the problem in 1985.

So on the whole, Japan benefits from a weaker yen, which makes its exports more competitive.