ABSTRACT
On 1 January 1999 the EU launched its single currency, the euro. By 6 January, Japanese Prime Minister Obuchi Keizō had arrived in Paris to begin a week-long tour of the major EU capitals and to solicit support for a new financial order centred upon the dollar, the euro and the yen. To be framed within a loose exchange rate grid, this new order would, it was hoped, prevent the marginalization of the yen in the global marketplace (Financial Times, 6 January 1999). Finance Minister Miyazawa Kiichi and Foreign Minister Kōmura Masahiko were equally active in promoting this trilateral initiative, and in emphasizing the likely international political as well as economic impact (MOFA 1999a).
