Ford Urges Obama to Lean on Japan About Yen

Ford Motor Co. says it has pressed President Barack Obama to insist at his meeting on Friday with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe that Japan stop intervening to further weaken the yen.

Joe Hinrichs, the company's president of the Americas, tells Ford workers in Ohio that Japan's actions to weaken its currency gives its automakers an unfair advantage. He didn't say how the company made its views known to the White House.

The yen has slid about 8% to 93 to the dollar since Abe took office in late December. The yen's decline makes Japan-made vehicles less expensive in overseas markets and boosts the value of repatriated profits.

Hinrichs says Ford also hopes Obama will urge Abe to open Japan's auto market to foreign vehicles. Fewer than 4% of the country's car sales last year were imports, he notes. Hinrichs adds that the company sells "a few hundred" vehicles per month in Japan.

The White House says Obama will insist at his meeting with Abe that Japan ease its trade obstruction of U.S. vehicles. An administration official says that until Japan takes such action, the president will oppose its request to join the Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade talks.

American automakers contend the country's participation in the free trade pact would entrench its non-tariff barriers while making Japan-made vehicles cheaper in the U.S.