Japan's Finance Ministry's Vice Finance Minister for International Affairs, Masato Kanda, said on Friday that the recent move of the Japanese Yen (JPY) are somewhat rapid and he will take appropriate measure on foreign exchange (FX) if needed.
Key quotes
Recent yen moves are somewhat rapid.
Will take appropriate action on forex if needed.
Did not comment whether intervened FX market.
Can't think if government officials commented on forex intervention
Yen moved 5% in the past month, which is significant.
It is natural to think recent forex moves were driven by speculators.
Weak Yen pushes up import costs, which would hurt people's lives.
Undesirable if excessive forex moves triggered by speculators hurt people's lives.
Market reaction
At the time of writing, USD/JPY was trading at 158.87, gaining 0.02% on the day.
(This story was corrected on July 12 at 01:55 GMT to say, Masato Kanda is Japan's Finance Ministry's Vice Finance Minister for International Affairs, not Japan's top currency diplomat).
Japanese Yen FAQs
The Japanese Yen (JPY) is one of the world’s most traded currencies. Its value is broadly determined by the performance of the Japanese economy, but more specifically by the Bank of Japan’s policy, the differential between Japanese and US bond yields, or risk sentiment among traders, among other factors.
One of the Bank of Japan’s mandates is currency control, so its moves are key for the Yen. The BoJ has directly intervened in currency markets sometimes, generally to lower the value of the Yen, although it refrains from doing it often due to political concerns of its main trading partners. The current BoJ ultra-loose monetary policy, based on massive stimulus to the economy, has caused the Yen to depreciate against its main currency peers. This process has exacerbated more recently due to an increasing policy divergence between the Bank of Japan and other main central banks, which have opted to increase interest rates sharply to fight decades-high levels of inflation.
The BoJ’s stance of sticking to ultra-loose monetary policy has led to a widening policy divergence with other central banks, particularly with the US Federal Reserve. This supports a widening of the differential between the 10-year US and Japanese bonds, which favors the US Dollar against the Japanese Yen.
The Japanese Yen is often seen as a safe-haven investment. This means that in times of market stress, investors are more likely to put their money in the Japanese currency due to its supposed reliability and stability. Turbulent times are likely to strengthen the Yen’s value against other currencies seen as more risky to invest in.
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