Japan’s government unveiled a $100 billion effort to cope with persistent strength in the yen that threatens to thwart the nation’s recovery from three straight quarters of economic contraction. Officials will release $100 billion of its foreign-currency reserves to the Japan Bank for International Cooperation, Finance Minister Yoshihiko Noda told reporters today in Tokyo. JBIC, as the lender is known, is a state-run export credit agency. The yen traded at 76.60 per dollar as of 12:07 p.m. in Tokyo, higher than before Noda started speaking. The one-year funding program will be used to aid small companies that are ... (full story)