Overview
- Japan’s Finance Minister Aiko Katayama held an online meeting with U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to discuss the yen’s sharp slide, a development reported on Monday and confirmed by multiple sources.
- Officials discussed policy responses that included the possibility of foreign‑exchange intervention, but no formal outcome or joint decision has been disclosed.
- The yen traded around 161.9 during the session, sitting just below 161.96 which would mark its weakest level since 1986 and would add political pressure on Tokyo to act.
- Tokyo has already executed a record 11.7 trillion yen intervention between late April and early May that only temporarily stabilized the currency, so markets are treating ministerial contact as a live signal that more intervention is possible.
- A weaker yen raises the cost of dollar‑priced imports such as oil and could push up consumer prices and weigh on household spending, so traders and importers will watch exchange moves and any US response for signs of coordinated or unilateral action.