TOKYO, Japan - Imagine if your paycheck dropped 15 to 20 percent, without cause. You continue showing up for work at the same time, your job performance doesn't change, you don't change anything - but on Friday, your paycheck is 15 to 20 percent less.

Who would be happy?

Well, that's what sort of happened to Japan's biggest companies, thanks to the strong yen.

Now before your eyes glaze over at another currency story, consider this figure, cited by Toyota in a quarterly earnings report: A movement of one yen equals approximately U.S. $400 million for the company.

Before the global economic slowdown, one dollar was routinely worth 110 or 120 yen.  Today, the yen hit a new eight month-high (and the dollar a big low) of just under 89 - that equals about $12 billion in loss.

Without looking at how companies are managed or how the global economy is moving, these companies have already lost billions of dollars, thanks to the currency market.

Companies like Toyota, Honda and Sony are global companies that export to consumer-hungry America, the land of the dollar. Not only do they have to cope with a slowdown in demand, the yen is hammering their bottom line. Not an enviable business position.

Japan's new government came in on a wave of consumer outrage, saying it would get more money into the hands of the consumer.

Japanese Finance Minister Hirohisa Fujii told reporters that the government was not considering jumping into the market to sell the yen and help exporters. No more trickle down like the old government, pledged the incoming Democratic Party of Japan. The mantra of the day is trickle up. Economists wait to see if the new government is right.

Meanwhile, consumers in Japan cheer the news and enjoy the power of their currency at home. But in the boardrooms across Tokyo, there must be quite a different sentiment. They're probably wondering when that 20 percent will come back.

TOKYO, Japan - I’d been in Tokyo for just a couple of days when we went to visit Akihabara, Tokyo’s electronics Mecca. Coming from my most recent post in Havana, it was as it I’d landed on the moon.

Everywhere you look are neon billboards hawking the latest playstation game as if it were a Hollywood film. Giant flatscreen TVs, camcorders and digital cameras jockey for space with the latest in cellphone/TV/PDA/portable audio players.

A bit of a jolt after the anti-capitalist island, where most billboards are hand-painted government propaganda.

We were in Akihabara to guage how shoppers felt about Sony’s offerings for a story to release with Sony’s financial results for 2008.  And honestly, most people we talked to were upbeat about Sony’s products. One young Chinese woman in town to shop told us “Chinese people love Sony!”

But it was hard not to spot signs of Sony’s problems. On a street filled with shoppers listening to their iPods, the Sony Walkman seemed an out-of-step afterthought. And one young man told us he loved Sony’s designs, but added that all the company’s products seemed overpriced.

You don't really notice Haruka Nishimatsu when he passes you in the hall. A middle-aged man in a suit, he blends into the working crowd at Japan Airline's headquarters in Tokyo.

JAL President Haruka Nishimatsu, center, shares a light moment in front of a jet engine.

"Why should I stick out?" Nishimatsu says out loud to me.

"Well, you are the CEO and Chairman of this multi-billion dollar international airline," I replied.

"So?" says Nishimatsu. "That doesn't make me special."

That philosophy, that he's just like everyone else trying to make it through Japan's recession, is why he takes the city bus to work, eats in the cafeteria with his employees and strolls through the operations room at the airport. When the company looked to cut costs, he eliminated every single expensive perk of his job. He took away the corner office and chauffeur. Then he slashed his pay dramatically, so that in 2007 he made less than his pilots.

JAL can use every penny it saves. This fiscal year, the airline expects to lose $34 million dollars after passenger traffic fell 20 percent and cargo loads fell 40 percent. It's a global company that lives and dies by the direction of the global consumer and economy.

"I understand there are different conditions in terms of the economy for each country, but I think these economic issues need to be solved globally, rather than solved country by country," says Nishimatsu. "I hope the G20 will give a clear direction to the global economy."

Nishimatsu also believes the solution must begin with the financial institutions and continue to tighter regulations.

But he points to corporate culture as the long-term solution. Like the AIG bonuses, Nishimatsu says, "shocked" him. "It's like they're from another planet," he says.

A lesson of this recession, he hopes, will be that corporations don't solely pursue profit and instead focus on the long-term financial health of the company and employ people and help society. Together with shared sacrifice, he believes, the global economy will recover - but only if everyone from the CEO to the entry-level employee works together.

TOKYO, Japan - "Hey, that's not so bad!" That's what news bulletins reported across Japan this morning as Japan's government released its fourth quarter gross domestic product (GDP) figures. The economy still shrank at the worst rate since the 1970s oil crisis - but again, not at the rate initially estimated. When "not so bad" sounds like good news, you know times are tough.

But this is one report, and one that will surely be followed up with another next week, maybe showing more gloom than silver lining.

As far as today's report, Japan's cabinet office says the annualized GDP shrank 12.1 percent versus the initial 12.7 percent estimate. Quarter to quarter, the economy shrank 3.2 percent, a little better than the expected 3.3 percent.

Japan's export-driven economy has been particularly hard hit in the global economic slowdown, as consumers in the United States and Europe lose their taste for Japan's cars and electronics. Companies such as Toyota and Sony have dramatically slashed production, trying to bring inventories in line with demand. That inventory build, according to economist John Vail of Nikko Asset Management, is one reason the GDP revision is a little better than initially estimated, and that the next quarter may show a deeper contraction when the inventory build falls.

"I wouldn't get too excited about the difference between 12 (percent) or 13 percent," says Vail, who points out GDP numbers are highly subject to revision. "Right now we're in a unique situation: falling demand and destocking. It's a double whammy. As soon as destocking is over, we'll have some stabilization or improvement in production in manufactured goods. We're probably in the period of maximum decline and things will improve going forward once the destocking is completed."

Bottom line: don't get too worried about every single report. Economists urge you to look at the bigger picture, which currently in Japan shows a mixed bag of possible recovery or deepening recession, depending on how world leaders move forward with stimulus packages and reform. This global crisis isn't as simple as one cause, one quick fix or one single GDP report.

TOYOTA CITY, Japan — Cecelia Kobashigawa came to the Toyota City job center with four friends. They're all in the same boat – suddenly fired from a Toyota subsidiary due to the global economic slowdown. Her eyes welled up as she told us about her 19-year-old daughter and 15-year-old son and how long they'd survive without her working. "It's so tough," she said, clutching handouts from the center on job leads.
 
Unfortunately, the job leads are just not there, at least not in this one industry city that lives and dies by Toyota Motor Corporation.
 
The news went from bad to worse on Toyota's outlook for the fiscal year. Toyota revised its earnings forecast for the fiscal year ending in March 2009, to a loss three times larger than what it feared. Toyota is forecasting a net loss of $4 billion and an operating loss of nearly $5 billion. It's the first time in Toyota's 71 year history that the company will record a net or operating loss for a fiscal year.
 
Toyota Executive Vice President Mitsuo Kinoshita says the company is thoroughly reviewing the entire business to reduce costs across the board. He said it hopes "to achieve further cost reduction and reduce fixed costs by 10 percent." Toyota did not reveal specifics of the cost reductions.
 
For Kobashigawa, she's not seeing any light at the end of the tunnel in Toyota City. The city of 400,000 is seeing historic levels of unemployment. This area now has Japan's highest rate of unemployment. Under the handouts of her job leads, she also has a brochure for a training school. She's thinking of becoming a day care worker. Perhaps the joy of children could become a source of hope in these tough economic times.

TOYOTA CITY, Japan - On what was to be a historic day, halting all of Toyota's Japanese assembly lines, the automaker announced late in the day it would keep one line running. The late news sent copy editors and reporters to their laptops erasing headlines like "historic shutdown," but it did little to quell the pain for the tens of the thousands of workers idled across Japan as nearly every line stopped producing autos and auto-related equipment.

The scene is quiet these days in Toyota City.

Nowhere is the silence more deafening than in Toyota City, home and birthplace to Toyota Motor Corporation. Factories are shuttered, workers idled, in an attempt to bring production in line with falling global demand.

The day is particularly ominous for assembly line worker Takayuki Yoshikawa, who has already been told he's out of a job and home in May. Yoshikawa resides in a Toyota owned dormitory. "I don't know what to do," says Yoshikawa. "I could go back to my hometown, but there are no jobs there, either."

Toyota, now the world's largest automaker, plans 10 more days like this, spread out over the next two months. Toyota's incoming president, Akio Toyoda, called the current economy "unprecedented, the likes of which haven't been seen in 100 years."

Toyota also says the scheduled assembly line shutdowns are an attempt to save what jobs the automaker can. "The production suspensions scheduled for Japan in February and March is part of our effort to keep production in line with market demand. We are carrying out these suspensions fully aware of the necessity to even out production volumes and maintain employment levels."

Analysts say while painful, these shutdowns may be unavoidable. "Everywhere, almost everywhere, things are getting worse and worse and worse," says Koji Endo, Credit Suisse auto analyst. "Under that kind of circumstance, you have to control your cost. Maybe try to shrink temporarily."

The cost control is having a damaging effect on Toyota City public coffers. The city of 400,000 estimates it will lose 90 percent of its tax dollars as Toyota falls into the red and pays fewer taxes. It comes at a time when Toyota City is seeing historic levels of unemployment. This region, according to Toyota City, carries the dubious distinction of having the highest rate of unemployment in Japan.

Alberto Dilone, already fired from a Toyota parts subsidiary, showed up at the Toyota City job center to search for a new job.

"Kubi," says Dilone, slicing a finger across his throat. Dilone says half the people in his plant have been fired and the jobs in Toyota City are scarce. Like the hundreds of unemployed filtering through the center everyday, he's leaving with no new job leads.

TOKYO, Japan — At the Toyota City job center, today's supervisor, Mr. Kawajiri, is in a mild panic. The number of people who need a job has doubled in just months, and their numbers seem to grow with each passing day. It's hard to keep up, he says, and it's often overwhelming.

 
The Toyota City area, home to Toyota Motor Corporation, is now also home to Japan's highest density of unemployed workers. This is something Toyota City has never seen before.

This one-industry town has ridden high with Toyota Motor Corporation for decades, exploding in size and wealth. Workers enjoyed lifetime employment with enough cash to care for their entire families.

Town coffers filled with each profit earnings report from the ambitious automaker. That was all before the global economic downturn.

Today, for the first time in the world's biggest automaker's history, all of its Japanese assembly lines sit idle.

The seven Toyota City factories are silent, a deafening sound in this city of 400,000 residents.

Workers who pride themselves on the Toyota philosophy of "kaizen," which means constant improvement, are improving nothing today. They're sitting at home or passing the time in Toyota City's main shopping district.

But no one wants to spend any money, because they're not sure when or if they'll be showing up in Mr. Kawajiri's job center.

"I don't want to complain, but it's hard," says Kawajiri. "I take it day by day, person by person, and try not to think of all the people who are unemployed right now. If I do, it's more than I can handle."

TOKYO, Japan — Before you get to the front door of Canon's headquarters in Tokyo, you can hear it – a virtual stampede of employees pouring out of the building right at 5:30pm. You might think it's not so unusual. The day is over and workers should go home, right? But this is Japan, where the 12 hour workday is the norm. Sure, you can go home at 5:30pm, but you better pack your guilt with your briefcase. That is, except at Canon, twice a week.

Japan’s health ministry reports the country’s birthrate is well below that needed to maintain the population.

At Canon, the company shuts off the lights and turns off the heat to force employees out by 5:30pm. There are two reasons – to cut overtime, but also an unusual one: to encourage employees to have more babies. Watch Kyung Lah's report on Canon's initiative

The thinking goes, while there's less work to do in a historic recession like this one, corporations might as well get to fixing another major social problem in Japan: the low birthrate. Keidanren, Japan's largest business group with 1300 major international corporations as members, issued a plea to its members to let workers go home early to spend time with their families and help Japan with its pressing social problem.

Japan's Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare reports the country's birthrate is 1.34, well below the 2.0 needed to maintain the population. Part of the problem is the expected 12 hour workday. Toss in the high cost of living and the social rigidity towards women and parenting, and you have a major problem on your hands. Compounding the problem, Japan is aging at the highest rate of any country in the world. The world's second largest economy, say many analysts, faces its greatest threat from its own social problems, not an outside force. Without some sort of active change in the current social and work structures, warn sociologists, Japan's population will buckle under its population proportions.

The 5:30 p.m. lights out program is one simple step towards helping solve that problem, with the added benefit of slashing overtime twice a week across the board. Employee Miwa Iwasaki isn't complaining, saying, "It's great that we can go home early and not feel ashamed." If you can feel good at work a couple of times a week, that's a rare silver lining in the current global economic storm.

TOKYO, Japan - Everybody I know has that odd uncle or aunt who seems to magically ruin the next wedding or family holiday meal; the relative who drinks too much or maybe says inappropriate things, wrecking what should be a pleasant night for the family. At Tokyo's famed Tsukiji Fish Market, it's not a family member but misbehaving tourists.

A tourist snaps a picture at Tokyo's famed Tsukiji Fish Market.

Japanese TV caught drunken tourists from London licking a US $10,000 tuna at the before-dawn auction.

A few minutes later, the camera crew videotaped French tourists joyriding on a fisherman's trolley.

Such behavior led the Tokyo Metropolitan Government to ban tourists from the market for one month, trying to give its multi-billion dollar tuna industry a brief respite.

The market estimates US$18 million worth of fish pass through Tsukiji everyday and are auctioned before dawn. That's US $4.8 billion a year.

That fish passing before point-and-shoot tourist cameras become sushi at some of the world's premier restaurants seems to elude some tourists, who might think they were at Disneyland, the working market says.

"The tourists sometimes bother us," says tuna wholeseller Junichi Honma, who bought US$50,000 worth of tuna at this morning's auction.

"The time is limited for the auction, only about an hour, and they think this is just a sightseeing show. This is our livelihood."

The market re-opened for tourists today and a few dozen tourists returned. Most were well-behaved, though a couple did nearly step on a US$8000 tuna.

They all seemed delighted to get a rare glimpse of commerce from the sushi nation of the world.

But for it to continue, the market is asking its international guests to use common sense while visiting.

For example, drinking at one of Tokyo's all-night clubs and immediately arriving for the tuna auction at 5:30 a.m. probably will make you a poor guest.

The market says it will try to keep the auction open for its visitors but adds that it all depends on future behavior.

So, for the sake of the majority of good visitors, please don't be that inappropriate relative. You've heard your mother complain about it.

It doesn't make her or this world-famous market very happy.

Watch my report of the footage that sparked the tourist ban.

TOKYO, Japan – The 61-year-old construction worker had walked by these sorts of people before: Bums he always quietly called them. Homeless, these men and women slept in the parks and looked as if they didn't have much to look forward to.

A construction worker joined a long line of people waiting for a hot meal in Tokyo's Hibiya Park.

As he now stood in line for a hot meal in Hibiya Park, the man told us he couldn't believe he was one of them.

"I wasn't ready when this happened," he said, breaking down in tears. "It happened all of a sudden. That's why I ended up here."

The construction worker, who asked us not to use his name, was told on Christmas Eve that his company was bankrupt. He was already living paycheck to paycheck in Tokyo, one of the world's highest rent cities. One of the benefits of the job, he said, was corporate housing. Now he was out of a job and a home.

The man is a temporary worker, a class of first-hired-first-fired employees. According to Japan's government, temporary workers make up one-third of the country's labor force. They have fewer employment protections than permanent workers, and they are bearing the lion's share of the recession's pain. Japan's government says between October 2008 and March 2009, some 85,000 temporary workers will be out of a job. Not all of those workers will end up homeless, but in one of the world's most expensive cities, the line between comfort and poverty is thin.

"I think globally it's going to get quite a bit worse before it gets better," says John Vail of Nikko Asset Management. "You hear numbers like a 9 or 10 percent unemployment rate in the [United] States being mentioned. Japan has a low unemployment rate, but it's going to rise quite significantly. People will be losing their jobs; companies will restructure."

Restructuring has already begun at Japan's major companies like Sony, Canon, Toyota, and Honda. Those export-driven companies depend on the hunger of the global consumer. But as the credit crunch narrows the ability to borrow and consumer confidence plummets around the world, those companies are posting record losses and looking to staunch the red. Job cuts are part of the equation. Toyota announced this week it would try and save as many full-time jobs as possible but that 3000 temporary workers would be cut by the end of 2009.

The tent city in Hibiya Park stayed open for a few days. The government offered job counseling and suggestions of new places to stay. The former construction worker says he's optimistic that he'll land another job in a month or so. Until then, he says, he'll try to do something he used to take for granted when he had a job - stay warm through Tokyo's winter.