While wishing our readers health, happiness and prosperity in this Year of the Dog, we would like to point to developments in Japan this month. On Friday, central bank veteran Haruhiko Kuroda was reappointed for a second term as governor of the Bank of Japan, and his deputies will be Masayoshi Amamiya (the central bank’s executive director) and Masazumi Wakatabe of Waseda University. They have their work cut out for them, and now a rapidly appreciating yen (up 3 per cent since the beginning of this month) has added to their problems. Last week, the currency slumped below horizontal support on the chart, trading well below cloud support, and looks set to make a beeline for the psychological 100-yen level.