In July 1973, I became assistant director of the legal division of the International Finance Bureau, now the International Bureau. At the time, the yen had appreciated and the greenback had weakened to 260 yen per dollar. The job of the legal division, which was primarily responsible for foreign exchange control under the law of the same name, was to encourage the outflow of funds from Japan and to control the inflow of funds.
The situation changed drastically with the first oil crisis in October 1973. In the wake of the Yom Kippur War, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) restricted exports of crude oil, which caused its price to quadruple from about $3 to $12 a barrel.
