Is a Yen Bloc Forming in Pacific Asia

The essay reaches three conclusions regarding the Yen Bloc that Japan is reputed to be forming in East Asia and the Pacific. (1) Although growth in East Asian countries is rapidly raising their weight in world output and trade, the statistics from the 1980s do not bear out a movement toward intra-regional bias in trade and direct investment flows. (2) There is a bit more evidence of rising Japanese influence in the region's financial markets. (3) Much of Japan's increasing financial influence takes place via a growing role for the yen in Asian countries ' exchange rate policies and invoicing of trade and finance. But these trends are less the deliberate outcome of wishes on the part of Japanese policy-makers than of pressure from the U.S. government to internationalize the yen