A weaker yen lifts the profits of multinational companies while cutting the real purchasing power of Japanese households. Bank of Japan Deputy Governor Himino said both things at once, which is the point: the distributional tradeoff of yen depreciation now has formal acknowledgment from inside the central bank.
The case for yen weakness runs through the corporate earnings channel. When multinationals generate revenue in foreign currencies and convert it back into yen, a depreciated exchange rate widens the margin on that conversion. The profit effect is mechanical and immediate.
The household read-through runs the other direction. A falling yen raises the domestic cost of imports, eroding real purchasing power even when nominal wages hold. Himino framed both the profit gain and the purchasing power loss as simultaneous, which is the specific thing the statement establishes.
The counterargument
The counterargument holds that corporate profit gains do not stay locked in balance sheets. Stronger earnings can translate into higher wages and increased domestic spending over time, returning some of what the depreciation took from household income. The risk is the lag. Households pay the import markup now; the wage cycle, if it turns at all, moves on a longer clock.
On balance, Himino's statement establishes that the Bank of Japan views the profit effect for multinationals and the purchasing power cost for households as running at the same time. The line to watch is whether that concurrent framing carries into formal policy language.