Japan's Ministry of Finance on Friday released details of its foreign exchange interventions conducted between April and June this year, indicating that the three currency interventions in the three-month period failed to reverse the yen's downtrend.
During the second quarter of the year, Japan carried out the three rounds of dollar-selling, yen-buying operations to curb the Japanese currency's steep fall against the U.S. dollar, but the measures failed to meet the target of reversing the yen's decline against the U.S. dollar.
Ministry data showed that the Japanese government and the Bank of Japan intervened in the foreign exchange market on April 30, May 4 and May 6, spending a total of 11.73 trillion yen (around 74.1 billion U.S. dollars) on dollar-selling, yen-buying operations.
The intervention on April 30 alone amounted to a record 6.28 trillion yen, surpassing the previous single-day record of 5.92 trillion yen set on April 29, 2024.
Authorities also used 780.2 billion yen on May 4 and 4.68 trillion yen on May 6 to prop up the Japanese currency.
Before the interventions, the yen had weakened to the upper 160 range against the U.S. dollar. Although the currency rebounded temporarily afterward, the gains proved short-lived, and by late July, the yen had weakened further to levels near 164 per U.S. dollar.
Analysts said they broadly believe that without changes to the underlying economic fundamentals, currency intervention alone is unlikely to reverse the yen's decline.
Finance Minister Satsuki Katayama confirmed Monday that Japanese and U.S. authorities had carried out a coordinated yen-buying intervention in the currency market in New York trading hours on July 31, the first such joint move in 15 years.
Following the operation, the yen briefly surged to the lower 155 range against the U.S. dollar before retreating to around 158 yen per U.S. dollar on Friday.
Japan's 3 currency interventions in Q2 fail to reverse yen's downtrend
