Kazuo Ueda, the governor of the Bank of Japan, is starting to take some ownership of the weak yen – and not before long.
The end of negative interest rates, a step rich in images but small in substance, has not done much to counter the currency’s retreat. Something more is needed if there is not a decisive shift in the trajectory of the dollar, the key player of the global financial system.
For the broad constellation of economic officials in Japan, it is now all hands on deck. In general, BOJ chiefs are comfortable ceding yen policy to the Treasury Department, with the monetary authority acting as the ministry’s banker.
