The US Treasury Department has added Japan to its “monitoring list” for currency practices, but has not labeled the country or any other trading partner as a currency manipulator.
Although the Treasury Department pointed out that Japan intervened earlier this year to support the yen, the ministry instead focused on Tokyo’s large bilateral trade surpluses and current account surpluses.
“The Ministry of Finance’s expectation is that intervention in major, freely traded currency markets should only be reserved in very exceptional circumstances, with appropriate prior consultation,” the ministry said in its semi-annual currency report on Thursday. “Japan is transparent regarding currency transactions. .”
