COVERS CHAPTERS 3 AND 4 – HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENTS GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS Chapter 3: Go to the websites found in Chapter 3 to assess updated economic information about Japanese financial markets. Question 1: What is the current interest rate on a 1-year, risk-free government bond in the Japan? Has the interest rate increased or decreased in recent years (find data for at least the last three years)? How might the current interest rate environment in Japan affect your business? ** Go to a source such as www.investing.com and find the CURRENT benchmark rate for the Japan (use the one-year Japan government bond rate rate) and compare that to our CURRENT one-year U.S. Treasury Bill rate: Make sure you are comparing “like” (1-year) rates for the two countries. Question 2: The stock market is sometimes used as an indicator of expected business conditions in the Japan, which could affect the number of students who can afford a college education in the U. S. Inspect the trend in the performance of the Japanese stock index (see recent performance of the Nikkei Stock Exchange) over the past several years. Based on recent stock market trends, is the outlook favorable or unfavorable for your business? Explain how and why this information is/might be relevant to your business. Chapter 4: Your business is exposed to potential movements in the exchange rate of the Japanese currency (called the “Yen”, but usually abbreviated as “JPY”), as is explained in several of the following websites: www.oanda.com www.finance.yahoo.com www.bloomberg.com Go to one of the websites to obtain exchange rate information and assess recent exchange rate movements of the JPY with respect to the U.S. Dollar (USD): Question 3: How has the exchange rate (JPY/USD) of the Japanese currency change over the last year? It is helpful here to examine trends over the past1 year, 2 years, and 3 years. Yahoo Finance has the ability to create excellent graphs for any past period. Please feel free to include any that you create from there and include them in your response.