This article is from February 5 – so it isn’t new. It is good background material, with some material from Nomura’s Richard Koo:
One reason why the global economy managed to avoid a depression after the events of 2008 was that the Aso government and Finance Minister Hirohisa Fujii, a member of the DPJ cabinet that followed, were willing to accept a strong currency despite the resulting pain for Japanese industry because they had learned the lesson from the 1930s that trade surplus nations must not engage in certain actions during a global economic crisis.
Unfortunately, western politicians and media remain largely ignorant of the fact that Japan’s sacrifice prevented a repeat of the global economic tragedy of the 1930s. Japan’s efforts in this regard have been taken for granted, and now some are even claiming the Abe administration has started a currency war.
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The article is also useful in its emphasis on how the April 4 meeting of the BOJ has taken on much more importance.
All’s fair in love and currency wars (May be gated)
Also, the link to Richard Koo’s full report (from the FT article).