Japan keeps intervening to defend yen below 160 per dollar
Updated
Updated · Reuters · May 7
Japan keeps intervening to defend yen below 160 per dollar
10 articles · Updated · Reuters · May 7
Former BOJ official Atsushi Takeuchi said Tokyo likely acted during Golden Week after last week's suspected roughly $35 billion intervention, with the yen later spiking to 155 before trading near 156.30.
He said 160 is a key psychological threshold and authorities were likely also unsettled by simultaneous selling in Japanese government bonds and the yen, raising fears of broader "Japan selling".
The finance ministry has not confirmed intervention. Japan has shifted since 2022 from curbing yen strength to resisting excessive weakness, while Takeuchi said intervention in oil futures is highly unlikely.
Can Japan's multi-billion dollar interventions save the yen while its own interest rates remain so low?
With Japan defending the yen, what will the unwinding of its massive foreign investments mean for global markets?