23:42 JST, May 31, 2024
TOKYO (Jiji Press) – Japan spent ¥9,788.5 billion on foreign exchange market interventions between April 26 and Wednesday, a record amount based on monthly reports, the Finance Ministry said Friday.
The dollar suddenly lost sharp ground against the yen on April 29 and May 2, during the country’s Golden Week holiday period, when Japanese authorities allegedly carried out stealth interventions to buy dollars in the yen.
Japanese authorities last entered the currency markets in the fall of 2022, when they spent ¥9,188.1 billion on three rounds of yen-buying dollar-selling interventions from September to October.
The yen remains weak against the dollar after the latest interventions. “We respond appropriately to excessive movements. This basic idea will not change in any way,” Finance Minister Shunichi Suzuki told a news conference on Friday.
On April 29, when the Tokyo market was closed for a national holiday, the dollar fell below ¥155 after rising above ¥160 in overseas trading.
Speculation arose at the time that periodic yen buying-dollar selling interventions worth about ¥5 trillion were implemented during the lean trading to prevent a sharp depreciation of the yen.
In the early morning of May 2, the dollar fell from about ¥157.5 below ¥154, prompting speculation about additional intervention worth about ¥3 trillion.
Masato Kanda, Deputy Finance Minister for International Affairs, who oversees currency interventions, has warned of possible interventions but refrained from commenting on whether such actions have actually been taken.
Last week, US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said currency interventions should be carried out only rarely.
