The stability of the rate is the main issue and the Central Bank manages to ensure it one way or another. This was finally achieved after the Central Bank switched to a floating national currency exchange rate.

Presidents come and go, and even parties come to and away from power. But the main policy tack does not change.

Here is an example: while resolving current issues, our American colleagues made a proposal on the Syrian settlement but then suddenly declared at the UN that they were not going to discuss anything with us. It is necessary to understand what people want in one department versus another department of the United States. Do they have a common position? And this happened many times on very many areas of our cooperation.

This is the political culture of the United States, which one should accept as is. The United States is a great country and it deserves non-interference and no third-party comments.

We should not forget either about the interests of the regular consumers who need the prices in supermarkets to be a little bit lower.

Spying has always gone on since ancient times.

[Yasuhiro] Yamashita is a respected judo master not only in Japan but across the world. To me, he is an example of an outstanding athlete and a very good man.