The reason why the Japanese government is now seriously lacking hard currency, in addition to the huge consumption of the previous war of aggression against China, the main reason is that Japan's ability to earn foreign exchange through exports in this era is very poor, and there was originally a fist product of raw silk, but now it has also been greatly impacted because of the invention of nylon. If it is another country, it will often adopt the method of currency depreciation to improve the competitiveness of its own goods in the international market, but for Japan, where most of its resources need to be imported from abroad, this trick is actually not very easy to use because it increases the cost of imports at the same time, and Chongren has just embezzled the reserves of the central bank to issue yen, so he is even more afraid to let the yen depreciate sharply, so his focus is still on developing new export goods.

However, with Japan's level of industrialization, which is the lowest among the great powers, how easy is it for "Made in Japan" to occupy a place in the international market? In addition to fulfilling orders that were heavily politically charged by the Americans, Japanese industrial goods were not manufactured at a price lower than they were cost (because of the low degree of industrialization, the same goods[Note 1] were more expensive to produce in Japan than in the West, even though Japanese labor was much cheaper). Otherwise, no one wants it in the world, and because of this, in order to obtain precious foreign exchange, the Japanese government has resolutely introduced a policy to give high subsidies to export enterprises, so that even if they sell their products cheaper than the cost, they will not lose money. This method naturally increases the financial burden on the Japanese government, but it is still cost-effective for Japan to spend yen in exchange for foreign currency, even if it has to come at the cost of reducing the standard of living of the people. Although Japan's method of undermining fair competition was later investigated by the Western powers, at least for a period of time, Japan earned a lot of foreign exchange, so that it had more financial resources to import various resources and advanced jishu equipment that Japan urgently needed.

Although the low-price promotion had a certain effect, because trade protection was still common in various countries before World War II, and "Made in Japan" was almost synonymous with poor quality. As a result, the bulk of Japan's exports are made up of raw materials. For example, raw silk is still one of Japan's most important exports, although it has been violently attacked by nylon, and Takahito and his ministers have also managed to discover some new resource products

Everyone knows that Japan is a resource-poor country, but that means as a whole. However, Japan is a large country with a population of more than 70 million, and no matter how small its land is, it is second only to the United States, the Soviet Union, France, and Germany (not counting colonies) among the great powers. There's always a little bit of a specialty. During the Ming and Qing dynasties in China, Japan was known as the "Land of Gold" and "Land of Silver", although there were basically no large gold and silver mines in Japan today due to their early development. However, if the modern smelting process is applied, a little gold and silver can still be squeezed out, and although it is not economically cost-effective to do so, in the eyes of Takahito and the Japanese government, who are extremely thirsty for hard currency, it is a great bargain to be able to exchange yen for gold and silver.

The Japanese government invested a lot of manpower, financial and material resources, and squeezed dozens of tons of gold and more silver from these old mines in just two or three years, but at the same time, it also caused great damage to the natural environment around the mines, and mercury pollution became a serious problem that has long plagued the local government. Similar policies and the Japanese government's encouragement of cutting down mountain forests, you must know that before World War II, although the concept of environmental protection has not yet been deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, but Japan has been a mountainous and rainy country since ancient times, so the role of forests in maintaining water and soil is still a little bit known, so although Japan is densely forested, but the Japanese government has never wanted to export a large amount of timber, and Chongren has now made such a determination, "Two years, at most three years, the Shijie war will break out, For the sake of the huge profits that can be obtained at that time, it is worth paying a big price before then, and it is only two or three years of over-exploitation, and Japan should not be unable to bear it."

It is also based on this idea that the Japanese government has also overexploited the domestic coal mines that have always been cherished, in order to save precious foreign exchange for the import of more valuable strategic resources, after all, although Japan's coal reserves are not much, but if they do not hesitate to dry up and fish, it is enough to maintain the consumption during the Shijie War (in the early post-war period of history, Japan's coal was even exported, but at that time, the blood and tears of coal miners also became an important theme in later Japanese literature). And the situation is similar in the fishing industry.

These obviously unreasonable practices of the Japanese government soon attracted the attention of the American ambassador, but although Roosevelt could be called a great man, his character had always been indecisive and he could not make a decision immediately, and the Japanese government's diplomatic "weakness" at that time also succeeded in confusing him, and by the time the United States stopped aiding Japan, Japan had greatly improved its industrialization and scientific and technological level by vigorously introducing American jishu and equipment, although there was still a certain gap compared with the United States, Britain and Germany. However, it is not as good as in history, even the old Maozi, who has always been considered "shoddy", is obviously inferior (without considering the premise of the navy), especially in the military industry, although due to the strong ability of the Soviets to integrate jishu, they can often use relatively low jishu to design weapons with superior comprehensive performance, and the performance and quality of Japanese products may not have much advantage compared with them, but they are much stronger than Japan in the same period in history

It is also worth mentioning that the Japanese government has also signed a currency swap agreement with Germany, which allows it to buy German goods in yen, and although it is almost impossible to sell Germany's coveted industrial equipment to Japan due to the huge demand from China, at least Japan has brought in a lot of jishu at a low price

Note 1: This is true even for most labor-intensive industries, because the gap in the level of industrialization between the major industrial countries in Shijie at this time is much larger than in the era of globalization in later generations, and the labor prices in the West are not as high as in later generations, coupled with trade barriers that are far more insurmountable than in later generations, it is impossible for Japan to follow the path of the rise of "Made in China" in later generations. (To be continued......)

PS: Today's second update, continue to ask for recommendation votes ^_^