Concurring with the decision of the G-5 countries to appreciate the yen during the Plaza accord was of momentous significance for Japan because this was the sharpest appreciation among the leading currencies in the recent past. Doubling the value of the currency in such a short time-span could have led to a stifling of the economy. Instead of being smothered, however, the Japanese economy--after the brief endaka recession--entered into the longest...