Was there a structural break in the impacts of exchange rates on the machinery exports of Japan to the US?

The purpose of the research is to investigate whether the impact of exchange rates on export prices in the machinery exports from Japan to the US has changed after the Great Recession. The difference GMM estimations with 10 digit HS-code level quantity and price data from 2002Q1 to 2018Q1 show that a 1% depreciation of the yen reduces Japanese export prices by 0.61% before the Great Recession. On the contrary, the impact of exchange rates on export prices turns out to be much smaller and statistically insignificant after the Great Recession. The findings in the paper shed a light on the puzzle that Japanese exports do not increase even during weak yen periods. Japanese exporters do not decrease export prices despite cheaper Japanese currency. Rather, they try to increase earnings by maintaining export prices somewhat stable.