What has Japan been reaping from the disaster of the great depreciation of the yen?

Core real estate and major consortia have been acquired by large amounts of capital, which has become a topic of concern in the Japanese economy recently.

Over the past three years, Japan has experienced a depreciation of the yen and a discount on dollar-denominated Japanese assets, which has provided attractive investment opportunities for global investors.

Large amounts of capital quickly poured into Japan's major cities, such as Tokyo, the Osaka metropolitan area, and other metropolitan areas, mainly involving the real estate market in the core areas.

Many well-known financial institutions such as Goldman Sachs, Blackstone, Morgan Stanley and other Wall Street giants, as well as capital from the United Kingdom, Singapore and other countries, have made large investments in Japan.

Among them, Morgan Stanley acquired the Ariake International Convention and Exhibition Center building in Tokyo and the Nomura Building in Yokohama for about $650 million.

Singapore's Government Investment Corporation (GIC) bought 31 properties, including the Prince's Park building in Tokyo, in a deal worth about $1 billion.

Britain's M&G Real Estate Investment fund has also invested in a number of core residential and office buildings in Tokyo and Yokohama.

The continuous depreciation of the yen for three years has created a great opportunity for international capital to achieve a considerable degree of success.

At the same time, the Wall Street capital represented by Buffett also increased the control of the Japanese chaebol, by buying the shares of the top five business consortia in Japan and other listed companies of the chaebol, forming a situation similar to that of the US capital controlling the Korean chaebol in 1997.

However, the depreciation of the yen has also brought a series of negative effects on the Japanese economy.

The first is the deterioration of foreign trade. The cost of Japan's imports of energy, food and industrial raw materials has risen sharply because of the depreciation of the yen, leading to a widening trade deficit.

Over the past three years, Japan has accumulated a trade deficit of 33 trillion yen and lost more than $200 billion.

Second, Japan's manufacturing sector has been hit hard.

Because Japan's energy self-sufficiency rate is extremely low, accounting for less than one-tenth of total demand, the remaining 90% depends on imports.

The depreciation of the yen has led to a surge in the import costs of energy and industrial materials, raising the cost of Japanese manufacturing, especially high-end manufacturing, by 30 to 60 percent.

That makes Japan's already uncompetitive manufacturing sector even more difficult to sustain, threatening to wipe out the last vestiges of life in Japanese manufacturing.

Overall, the depreciation of the yen has dealt a double blow to the Japanese economy.

On the one hand, a flood of capital into the Japanese property market has brought a degree of dynamism and growth.

On the other hand, the depreciation of the yen has led to the deterioration of foreign trade and the heavy damage to the manufacturing industry, which has brought great challenges and troubles to the Japanese economy.

In the future, the Japanese government and enterprises need to take effective measures to address these challenges and promote the stable and sustainable development of the economy.