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Someone Compared USD/JPY to Blood Pressure, and It's Genius

160 is bad, 90 is bad, and your doctor and your broker are saying the exact same thing.

· 3 min · Togetter

What's going on

The USD/JPY exchange rate has been a source of anxiety in Japan for years — a weak yen drives up the cost of imports and squeezes household budgets, while an overly strong yen creates its own set of economic problems. Most people understand that extreme moves in either direction are bad, but the financial jargon can make it hard to feel that instinctively.

That changed when one person on Japanese social media posted a simple reframe: think of the dollar-yen rate like blood pressure. Too high (160+) and you're in danger. Too low (90 and below) and you're also in danger. The sweet spot sits somewhere around 110–120 — which, as it happens, is also what a healthy blood pressure reading looks like. The comparison spread quickly, with people piling on to extend the metaphor in ways that turned out to be surprisingly apt.

Comments

Someone compared USD/JPY to blood pressure and honestly? Genius. Over 160 yen? Bad. Under 90 yen? Also bad.
Oh wow……!
lmao this actually makes sense www
Nicely put~
This is what “surprisingly fitting” actually means
Two cushions for this one (In Japanese comedy, tossing a cushion — “zabuton” — to a performer is a way of awarding points for a clever joke. Two cushions is high praise.)
Actually laughed out loud. And yeah, the numbers even line up.
For a second I thought this was about someone with 160 over 90… nope, both numbers are the “upper” reading 💱
Legit genius. So easy to understand.
Yeah, this is genius. Forget the “strong yen vs. weak yen” debate — what we actually want is to talk about whether the current rate feels high or low and what it’s doing to everyday life.
Too good… 100 to 120 is the comfortable zone for both blood pressure AND the exchange rate, huh.
Sitting at 150-something all the time is pretty rough too
Nobody is walking around happy with a blood pressure in the high 150s.
Just stay between 110 and 120, thanks
Actually a solid analogy. Wild swings in either direction are never good.
Also, temporarily spiking in one direction is fine — like blood pressure after exercise — but staying stuck there chronically is where the damage sets in, for the economy and the body alike.
And the fact that it creeps up due to long-term lifestyle habits… yeah, that tracks ()
Medication (read: intervention) can bring it down temporarily, but you have to keep taking it or it climbs back up… and if you don’t fix the underlying condition you’re done for. Yeah, still works as an analogy.
It really is a great analogy. I suppose yen-buying intervention would be like a strong blood pressure pill. Though I’ve heard hypertension is notoriously hard to cure…
Once it crosses 135 you’ve got a problem
Lately they say anything above 130 is already bad, not just 140.
Wait, isn’t 130+ already classified as hypertension now?
Whether it’s low-blood-pressure yen (sub-90) or hypertensive yen (160+), both damage economic health — and that has real implications for investors too. Finding the “normal range” for the Japanese economy feels increasingly urgent.
Currency is a country’s bloodstream, after all. Stagnation is bad, and so is constant outflow.
Guess we all need to start drinking sesame barley tea. (A brand of sesame barley tea — “goma mugi-cha” — is widely advertised in Japan as helping to maintain healthy blood pressure.)

My take

Love the analogy. My only complaint is that, like blood pressure, nobody ever tells you the numbers are moving until it's already a crisis.

Comments loosely translated for tone.

Source https://togetter.com/li/2703662