The yen’s outlook has changed, with new Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba suggesting earlier this month that the nation isn’t ready for higher interest rates, though he pulled back later to say he’s seeking to align with the Bank of Japan. Reports out of the US pointing to a resilient economy, pushing markets to price in a slower pace of monetary easing by the Federal Reserve, have also weighed on the yen.
Japan’s finance minister, Katsunobu Kato, recently said that sudden moves in the yen hurt companies and households, and that impact requires government scrutiny. The country’s chief currency official Atsushi Mimura also said that he was monitoring the foreign exchange market with a sense of urgency.
