Overview
- At the G7 finance meeting, Finance Minister Satsuki Katayama repeated that Japan will step in against excessive currency swings and pointed to oil price shocks and speculative trading as drivers of recent moves.
- Finance Ministry officials said Japan will fund any yen-buying with cash and maturing assets inside its $1.4 trillion reserves so it avoids selling Treasuries that could lift U.S. interest rates.
- Since April 30, Tokyo is estimated to have spent about ¥10 trillion buying yen, yet dollar/yen has retraced much of its drop and is again pressing the 159–160 area after briefly reaching around 155 earlier in May.
- U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said excess foreign‑exchange volatility is undesirable and voiced confidence in BOJ Governor Kazuo Ueda, comments that nudged dollar/yen lower in a brief move.
- Goldman Sachs said intervention alone is unlikely to pull dollar/yen down for long without a shift in the backdrop, such as slower U.S. growth or higher interest rates in Japan.