US and Japan take action to prop up yen in rare joint move

Japan and the US have confirmed that they jointly intervened last week to halt a slide in the yen after it fell to a fresh 40-year low.

The joint intervention is the first since 2011, when both countries took coordinated action to weaken the yen after the devastating earthquake and tsunami that hit eastern Japan.

Both Japan’s Ministry of Finance and US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent have said that they will not hesitate to conduct more joint interventions in the future.

It highlights both countries’ efforts to prevent a sell-off in the yen and Japanese government bonds from having an impact on the global economy, including potentially helping to push up borrowing costs for Washington.

Bank of Japan data indicated that Tokyo may have sold almost $59bn of US dollars to buy yen when it intervened in New York markets on Thursday, before Friday’s confirmed joint intervention with Washington.

The US has not confirmed the size of its intervention, but a Reuters photograph of a notepad in front of Bessent during a cabinet meeting on Friday read: “To Do: Buy Japanese Yen $5-10 bil”.

Shigeto Nagai, head of Japan economics at Oxford Economics, told the BBC: “The United States agreed to participate in the coordinated intervention because it serves its national interests by offering the prospect of significant benefits at a low cost.”

The two countries are expected to continue to intervene “intermittently in a coordinated manner for some time”, he added.

“Even if the actual amount of intervention is not particularly large, the prolonged sense of vigilance regarding intervention will be effective in deterring speculators.”