Japan may have fired its yen bazooka twice, but markets are testing Tokyo’s resolve

While authorities have typically refrained from immediately confirming currency interventions, they usually issue warnings beforehand — an intentional, strategic ambiguity that keeps the element of surprise to maximize market impact. Richard A. Brooks | Afp | After multiple warnings against the "speculative" and "one-sided" currency moves, Japan's Ministry of Finance appears to have put its money where its mouth is and intervened in the yen during the country's Golden Week holiday. The first intervention, reportedly on April 30, came after the yen weakened past the politically sensitive 160 yen level, marking the first yen-buying operation since July 2024. The yen surged by as much as 3% on that day, according to LSEG data. The yen appreciated sharply again Wednesday, fuelling market speculation that Tokyo had stepped into the currency market for a second time in recent days. The currency strengthened to as much as 155.02 per dollar from Tuesday's close of 157.87, a gain of almost 2%. While a stronger yen typically erodes the profit margins for Japanese exporters and makes their goods less price-competitive, a weaker yen raises the cost of energy, food, and raw materials, which the East Asian country is heavily reliant on. Japan's finance ministry may have spent as much as 5.48 trillion yen ($35 billion) to support the currency on April 30, just shy of the $36.8 billion last spent in July 2024, according to Reuters . …