As we can see, the Yen is up over the year in foriegn currency trading. In my opinion, the Japanese Yen represents the biggest forex winner in 2008 for FX on the currency trading market. You can tell that the Japanese Yen had the most dramatic appreciations of all the major currencies — and the Japanese Yen had the biggest gain against the U.S. dollar in forex trading in twenty years.

I don't think that the government of Japan is very excited by the appreciation of the yen, since an appreciating currency takes away export advantages.

As a result of the risk aversion due to the global economic crisis and recession, it appears that the Japanese Yen carry trade has been unwinding, causing the Japanese Yen to be higher in currency trading.

Finally, most people view the relatively stable Japanese Yen as a safe haven in the world of forex trading.