By Makiko Yamazaki and Leika Kihara<\/p>\n
TOKYO, May 12 (Reuters) – Japan and the U.S. reaffirmed their close cooperation in dealing with exchange rate moves, including on currency \u200cintervention, Japanese Finance Minister Satsuki Katayama told reporters after a meeting in Tokyo \u200cwith her U.S. counterpart, Scott Bessent, on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
Katayama said the two sides discussed market developments and confirmed that \u200bJapan was responding to currency moves in line with a joint statement signed with the U.S. last September, which allowed for foreign exchange intervention to combat excessive market volatility.<\/p>\n
“We agreed that we are coordinating extremely well on recent market moves, including exchange rates,” Katayama told a news \u200cconference.<\/p>\n
“Given current circumstances, we strongly confirmed \u2060anew the need to continue coordinating closely on market moves,” she said when asked whether Bessent made any remarks on recent suspected currency \u2060intervention by Japan to support the yen.<\/p>\n
When asked whether “close coordination” meant Washington could take the initiative in addressing sharp yen falls, Katayama said: “We engaged in discussions on deepening our coordination on various fronts.”<\/p>\n
Katayama \u200bdeclined \u200bto comment when asked if the Bank of \u200bJapan’s monetary policy was discussed at \u200cthe meeting.<\/p>\n
Japan is suspected to have spent nearly 10 trillion yen ($63.5 billion) in a recent round of yen-buying intervention to prop up its sagging currency, which is inflicting pain on the economy by pushing up import costs.<\/p>\n
Japanese policymakers are wagering an endorsement from Bessent on their foray into the currency market could give their intervention some extra bite and help slow \u200cthe yen’s slide.<\/p>\n
Some analysts have also speculated that \u200bBessent might renew his calls for speedier BOJ rate \u200bhikes as a way to support the \u200byen.<\/p>\n
With the war-induced spike in oil prices heightening price pressures, some \u200cBOJ policymakers argued in April that rates \u200bmay need to rise \u200bsoon, with one flagging the chance of a June move, a summary of opinions at last month’s meeting showed.<\/p>\n
Bessent is also expected to meet Japanese Prime Minister Sanae \u200bTakaichi during his three-day visit \u200cto Tokyo, which runs until Wednesday.<\/p>\n
($1 = 157.5200 yen)<\/p>\n
(Reporting by Makiko Yamazaki and Leika \u200bKihara; Additional reporting by Satoshi Sugiyama, Takaya Yamaguchi and Yoshifumi Takemoto; Editing \u200bby Tom Hogue, Jacqueline Wong and John Mair)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Makiko Yamazaki and Leika Kihara TOKYO, May 12 (Reuters) – Japan and the U.S. reaffirmed their close…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":20782,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[12090,4257,1303,8,16495,426,2640],"class_list":{"0":"post-20781","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-japan","8":"tag-currency-intervention","9":"tag-currency-market","10":"tag-exchange-rate","11":"tag-japan","12":"tag-market-moves","13":"tag-satsuki-katayama","14":"tag-scott-bessent"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20781","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20781"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20781\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20782"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20781"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20781"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20781"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}