{"id":67580,"date":"2026-08-02T03:57:10","date_gmt":"2026-08-02T03:57:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/67580\/"},"modified":"2026-08-02T03:57:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-02T03:57:10","slug":"buy-japanese-yen-jpy-5-10-bil-us-treasury-secretary-bessent-joins-us-japan-bid-to-lift-yen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/67580\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Buy Japanese Yen (JPY) $5-10 bil’: US Treasury Secretary Bessent joins US-Japan bid to lift yen"},"content":{"rendered":"

The more that the yen\u2019s depreciation gives Japan an advantage in trade with the US, the more it is likely to irk Trump\u00a0<\/p>\n

Published Sun, Aug 2, 2026 \u00b7 10:16 AM<\/p>\n

THE US joined Japan in engineering one of the most notable rebounds in the yen since the currency began its years-long slide, a decline that has stoked inflation in the Asian nation and rippled through global markets.<\/p>\n

At the close of New York trading on Friday (Jul 31), the yen was quoted at 157.40 to the US dollar and 122.7 to the Singapore dollar, the strongest since early May. On Jul 29, it was flirting around the weakest levels since 1986,<\/a> sounding alarm bells in Tokyo as rising import costs squeeze businesses and consumers.<\/p>\n

The sharp gains were fuelled by a combination of direct purchases of the yen, calls by officials to banks that trade the currency and jawboning from US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Japanese Finance Minister Satsuki Katayama. Bessent, who has deep knowledge of Japan\u2019s place in global markets from his hedge fund career, indicated that he thinks the yen is too weak.\u00a0<\/p>\n

While direct market intervention and verbal support have triggered rebounds before, only to see them fade away in days or weeks, the degree of coordination between the two countries now appears to be the tightest in decades, which has raised the stakes for traders betting against the yen.<\/p>\n

Bessent\u2019s commitment to shoring up the yen was clearly shown when Reuters published a photograph of a notepad in front of him at a cabinet meeting in Camp David on Friday. Under a \u201cTo Do\u201d title, it was written \u201cBuy Japanese Yen (JPY) $5-10 bil.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\" Bessent, who has deep knowledge of Japan\u2019s place in global markets from his hedge fund career, indicated that he thinks the yen is too weak. PHOTO: REUTERS <\/p>\n

\u201cThe market had underestimated the authorities,\u201d said Michiyoshi Kato, a senior adviser in the currency and rates client team at Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank in Tokyo. \u201cIt has likely become more difficult for speculators to sell the yen. If there is another intervention, the dollar-yen exchange rate will likely fall below 155 yen.\u201d \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Japanese authorities bought yen and sold US dollars during New York trading on Friday,<\/a> according to one person with knowledge of the matter. The Nikkei reported that the Japanese government and the Bank of Japan intervened to buy yen for a second straight day, while the Financial Times said separately that the Federal Reserve Bank of New York sold euros to buy yen on behalf of the US Treasury Department.\u00a0<\/p>\n

At least two major US banks were asked by the New York Fed to check the rate on the yen against the euro during the day, two people familiar with the matter told Bloomberg.<\/p>\n

The yen advanced more than 1 per cent against both the US dollar and the euro on Friday. It recorded an intraday jump of more than 3 per cent versus the greenback on Thursday, when Japan spent around 8.45 trillion yen (US$52.8 billion), according to data compiled by Bloomberg and based on a comparison of BOJ accounts and money brokers\u2019 forecasts. That would likely be the biggest-ever intervention on a single day by Tokyo.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u2018Very undervalued\u2019<\/p>\n

Bessent initially generated headlines by saying in a Fox Business interview on Thursday that the yen is \u201cvery undervalued\u201d and \u201cexcess volatility\u201d isn\u2019t healthy.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The US Treasury did not immediately respond to a request for comment late on Friday in US hours and officials at Japan\u2019s Ministry of Finance were not immediately available to comment on Saturday in Tokyo.<\/p>\n

The yen has been under pressure from rising oil prices, Japan\u2019s persistent budget deficits and a yawning interest-rate gap with the US and other major economies.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A failure to arrest the drop would have impact that goes far wider than Japan as turmoil in the nation\u2019s financial markets tends to spill out globally. Volatility in its government bond market in 2026 has flowed through into US Treasuries, drawing the ire of Bessent.<\/p>\n

And the more that the yen\u2019s depreciation gives Japan an advantage in trade with the US, the more it is likely to irk US President Donald Trump.<\/p>\n

Yet the rub for Trump administration is that if Japan is left on its own to defend the yen, Tokyo may have little choice except to sell down part of its holdings of US Treasuries to fund more currency intervention, which would have a negative impact on US borrowing costs.<\/p>\n

The Japanese finance ministry\u2019s top currency bureaucrat, Atsushi Mimura, said on Friday that Japan is getting more than \u201cmoral support\u201d from Washington. Meanwhile, Katayama, gave a call-out to Bessent, describing him as \u201cone of the most knowledgeable experts in markets.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBessent\u2019s influence is significant,\u201d said Nobuyasu Atago, chief economist at Rakuten Securities Economic Research Institute and a former BOJ official. \u201cThe US is now becoming more cooperative with Japan\u2019s interventions.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\" If Japan is left on its own to defend the yen, Tokyo may have little choice except to sell down part of its holdings of US Treasuries to fund more currency intervention. PHOTO: REUTERS Interest rate gap<\/p>\n

The market intervention on Thursday and Friday came as the BOJ board gathered to set monetary policy. It voted 8-1 to keep interest rates unchanged,<\/a> having raised them to 1 per cent in June. While that is the highest level since 1995, it is well below the 3.75 per cent upper bound for the US policy rate. \u00a0<\/p>\n

At a post-decision briefing, BOJ governor Kazuo Ueda offered little fresh support for the currency. He opened the door to the possibility of rate hikes at upcoming meetings without signalling this was likely.<\/p>\n

Bessent said in a social media post that he looks forward to meeting with Ueda at a gathering of the Group of 20 in Asheville, North Carolina, in August. The BOJ \u201chas demonstrated a strong commitment to monetary and financial stability,\u201d adding that \u201cwe continue to enjoy a strong relationship and close coordination.\u201d<\/p>\n

For some investors, the interest rate gap remains a big impediment for the yen.<\/p>\n

\u201cWithout backing from rate differentials, the impact of FX interventions is likely to be relatively short-lived,\u201d Evercore ISI strategists Marco Casiraghi and Gang Lyu wrote on Friday. \u201cWhile flagging the exchange rate as a source of risk to inflation, the BOJ has so far refused to get pulled into a more active role in supporting the yen.\u201d\u00a0BLOOMBERG<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The more that the yen\u2019s depreciation gives Japan an advantage in trade with the US, the more it…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":67581,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1300,3074,1306,8,17,2640,1101,1203],"class_list":["post-67580","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-japan","tag-bank-of-japan","tag-forex","tag-interest-rates","tag-japan","tag-japanese","tag-scott-bessent","tag-us-dollar","tag-yen"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67580","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=67580"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67580\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/67581"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67580"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67580"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67580"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}