United States and Japan Conduct Rare Joint Intervention to Support Yen
9 sources across 6 countries
Who reported this
- The Guardian
- Financial Times
- Reuters
- Asahi Shimbun
- NHK
- Sueddeutsche Zeitung
- South China Morning Post
- NRC
- Bloomberg
What the colours mean
- Left
- Centre-left
- Centre
- Centre-right
- Right
- A hatched block means the outlet is affiliated with, or controlled by, a state.
Political lean describes where an outlet sits within the politics of its own country. It is never a position on a single global scale.
Political lean is comparable inside one country and not across them, which is why the bar groups by country first. Publicly funded broadcasters are not marked as state-linked.
The owner of each outlet is listed as a matter of record, not as a judgement about the outlet.
The United States and Japan have carried out a coordinated currency intervention to support the Japanese yen after the currency fell to a 40 year low of nearly 164 yen per US dollar. Following the joint action, the yen surged to approximately 155 yen per dollar, its strongest level since early May. Japanese Finance Minister Satsuki Katayama and US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent both stated that their respective governments would not hesitate to intervene again to counter excessive volatility. A leaked to do list from Secretary Bessent indicated a plan to buy between 5 billion and 10 billion dollars worth of yen. Some reports suggest the total scale of the operation ranged from 60 billion to 80 billion dollars, with the majority provided by Japan. The Financial Times reported that Washington may have sold euros to buy yen to avoid signaling a desire for a weaker US dollar. This marks the first joint intervention between the two nations since 2011. Analysts suggest the yen's weakness was driven by a carry trade where investors borrowed cheaply in yen to buy higher yielding dollar assets, as well as concerns over Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's economic policies. While some experts believe the move discourages speculators, others from Oxford Economics argue it will not be enough to reverse the long term trend of depreciation.
How each side framed it
- Centre-left
- These outlets highlighted the fundamental economic problems facing Japan and questioned the underlying motives of the US government.
- Centre
- These outlets focused on the technical details of the intervention, the scale of the spending, and the market mechanics of the yen's volatility.
- Centre-right
- This outlet framed the intervention as a signal of friendship from the US and analyzed how it might limit selling pressure on US Treasuries.
Sources
- Centre-left Asahi Shimbun: Japan and US coordinate to stop yen depreciation, other goals held by US behind the scenes; experts asked
- Centre-left Asahi Shimbun: Coordinated intervention, US intentions become apparent; fundamental causes creating trend of yen depreciation
- Centre Bloomberg: Japan’s Takaichi Now Owes Trump After Yen Intervention
- Centre Financial Times: Team America: Yen police
- Centre NHK: July 31 intervention scale may exceed 4 trillion yen: Private brokerage analysis
- Centre NRC: The US help Japan with support purchases of the yen, but nobody understands why
- Centre Reuters: How a US-Japan pact to hit yen speculators came together - Reuters
- Centre-right South China Morning Post: The US has helped pull Japan’s yen out of a 40-year low. Why?
- Centre-left Sueddeutsche Zeitung: Japan: USA help to stabilize the falling Yen
- Centre-left The Guardian: Yen hits three-month high after Trump helps prop up currency
100% of the statements in this article were traced back to the source articles listed above.