As part of the preparations for our upcoming trip to Tokyo we obviously need some cash, so I’ve been keeping one eye on the value of ¥200,000 – roughly £1,000 – in the run up to departure.

When I initially started watching it was £980 which wasn’t too different from the last time time I went in 2006, but I checked a week ago and was surprised to find it had stealthily climbed to £1,045, prompting me to buy my currency before it got any worse.

Good job I did, too. K bought his a few days later and paid £20 more. I decided to keep one eye on the cost of ¥200,000 via the Post Office’s currency site and this is what happened:

Graph shown a gradual rise in the cost of the Yen

One week later the cost has risen 6%! So what’s causing this? Obviously the Pound is falling in value at the moment due to the Credit Crunch, but there has to be another reason – is the Japanese economy having a boom time at the moment?

I may update the graph at the end of next week if the cost continues to rise. I’m sure it will, but this rate is pretty unsustainable.

Update:

As of Monday, the price has actually come down a little. ¥200,000 now costs £1,076.54.