20周年を迎えるプラザ合意
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概要
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In September of 1985, the finance ministers and the central bank governors of the Group of 5 gathered at the Plaza Hotel in New York. Member countries of The Group of 5 (G-5) were the United States, Japan, Germany (then West Germany), France, and Britain. At this very famous meeting, they agreed to take a concerted action to depreciate the then overvalued U.S. dollar and to correct a widening U.S. trade deficit. In order to accomplish these objectives, based upon the agreement, all G-5 countries would coordinate to sell dollars in the foreign exchange market and the dollar went down significantly. This paper, looking back to the Plaza Accord after 20 years, attempts to analyze the significance and whether or not it was a successful effort. There has been sharp criticism of this G-5 agreement which says, for instance, "the horrific failure of 1985". or "the infamous Plaza Accord". Also, especially in Japan, there has been a strong argument that the result of the accord set in place the conditions that caused the Japanese bubble economy to expand and burst, damaging the economy for more than a decade. The writer asserts in this paper that they focused to manage weakening the dollar with their joint determination against the market only temporarily, and from that standpoint we could say that the effort was a success. Further, the main focus of the paper is not on the financial aspect of the Accord, but on the political implications, how and why they eventually agreed upon the joint action, and in this process what was the role of the U.S. and Japan. From this standpoint, the writer clarifies that the U.S. took an initiative in the decision-making process and that Japan was the main target of the drama as well as a key player in making the agreement successful. In conclusion, the writer observes that the Plaza Accord was a good example of the political leadership of both U.S. and Japan and that especially for Japan this was a big policy change from "weak yen to make Japan's economy sustainable" to "strong yen to make Japan competitive in the world". Finally the writer tries to suggest what Japan's role should be in the forthcoming international financial situation, with China emerging as a world economic power.