The yen's soaring apparently because the Bank of Japan might be about to raise interest rates. Can someone explain what this actually means for regular people - should I care about currency movements or is this just financial market stuff?
Are you planning to travel to Japan or buy Japanese products anytime soon? If you are, a stronger yen means things get more expensive for you - your money doesn't stretch as far there. For most people just living their daily lives, currency swaps barely matter unless you're dealing with imports, international investments, or travel. The interest rate thing is basically the Bank of Japan saying "we're making it more attractive to hold yen" which pulls money into the currency, so yeah, it goes up - that's how markets work.
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