§ Mr. Hickmetasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer what action he is taking to persuade the Japanese authorities to allow their currency to become an international currency.
§ Mr. Ian StewartIn the interests of the efficient working of the international trading and financial systems, it is important that the world's major industrial economies ensure that their domestic markets—both financial and for goods — are open to their competitors. Large economies such as Japan must allow their currencies to play a part commensurate with their relative importance to world trade, income and wealth. By most criteria the international role of the yen is still relatively undeveloped for an economy of Japan's size. My right hon. Friend pressed on Finance Minister Takeshita the importance to the world economy of further moves in Japan to remove any remaining restrictions on the free movement of capital which are not required for prudential purposes and to make as rapid progress as possible in increasing the range and availability of yen-denominated financial assets. These questions have also been discussed at official level. Although the Japanese Government have recently taken some steps to liberalise both the Euroyen and the domestic yen markets, this process needs to be taken considerably further.