The study looked at how changes in the exchange rate between China and Japan affect their trade balance. They found that when the Chinese currency depreciates against the Japanese Yen, it doesn't always lead to an increase in exports as traditionally believed. In fact, in some cases, imports exceeded exports after the depreciation. Short-term currency depreciation led to a decrease in the proportion of exports to imports, but this trend reversed after 3 quarters. Overall, the traditional J-curve effect, where a currency depreciation initially worsens the trade balance before improving it, was not observed in this specific case.