An Associated Press article (January 15,2011, http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Toyota-Rising-yen-could-force-apf-1661264517.html?x=0) describes the impact of the current 83 yen to the dollar exchange rate on Toyota’s decisions regarding production. Toyota has the largest Japanese production of all Japanese automakers, and the strong yen decreases the profitability of that decision.  Toyota’s President Akio Toyoda describes the company’s responsibility to preserve manufacturing in Japan and its role to deliver profitability to shareholders and suggests that the company may have to shift production out of Japan.  How long should the strong yen persist before the switching costs of production are dominated by production shifts ? Will the weak US dollar succeed in bringing increased production to US plants ?