Yen rises as Japan flags currency weakness

TOKYO: The yen was headed for its best day in almost three weeks as Japanese officials discussed the problems tied to a weak currency in meetings with their US counterparts.

The currency strengthened as much as 1.2%, the most since Sept 7, to 156.94 per dollar last Friday, outperforming all of its Group-of-10 peers.

Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said that an undervalued currency is “problematic” in a meeting with US President Donald Trump, adding to traders’ caution over the risk of interventions to buoy the currency.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, meanwhile, said he discussed “the desirability of a strong yen” with Japanese Finance Minister Satsuki Katayama.

“Intervention risk should put a ceiling on further yen weakness,” said Moh Siong Sim, a strategist at Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp.

“More importantly, the yen may be nearing a turning point as Trump’s concerns over its weakness point to deeper US-Japan coordination to support the currency.”

The yen has recently come under renewed pressure as expectations for further Federal Reserve rate increases threaten to keep the US-Japan interest-rate gap wide.

Uncertainty over how quickly the Bank of Japan (BoJ) can continue tightening has also weighed on the currency, this week pushing it closer the key 160-per-dollar level.

While officials have emphasised the speed and disorderliness of currency moves rather than any specific exchange-rate level, market participants have viewed the area around 160 as where intervention risk rises.

Options sentiment toward the yen turned more bullish lately, reflecting increased hedging demand against the risk of Japanese intervention.

Leveraged traders trimmed back their bullish positions on the yen in the week ending Sept 22, according to Commodity Futures Trading Commission data released last Friday.

They’d turned positive on the currency for the first time since mid-2025 a week earlier.

Japan and the United States carried out their first coordinated yen-buying intervention since 1998 this summer after the currency weakened beyond 160.

Japan spent a record 15.4 trillion yen (US$97.4bil) intervening in the month through Aug 26, according to Finance Ministry data.

“Japanese officials’ latest comments do nothing to address the two major elephants in the room: The BoJ lags its peers considerably, and there is still structural appetite for carry.” — Bloomberg

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东京：由于日本官员与美国同行举行会议，讨论与疲软货币相关的问题，日元有望迎来近三周以来的最佳单日表现。

上周五，该货币兑美元汇率一度上涨1.2%，达到1美元兑156.94，创下9月7日以来的最大涨幅，表现优于所有十国集团成员国货币。

日本首相高市早苗在与美国总统唐纳德·特朗普会晤时表示，货币被低估是“有问题的”，这加剧了交易员对干预措施以提振货币风险的谨慎情绪。

与此同时，美国财政部长斯科特·贝森特表示，他与日本财务大臣片山五月讨论了“日元走强的必要性”。

“干预风险应该会限制日元进一步走弱，”华侨银行策略师莫雄森表示。

“更重要的是，日元可能正接近一个转折点，因为特朗普对日元疲软的担忧表明，美日两国将加强协调以支撑日元汇率。”

由于市场预期美联储将进一步加息，美日利率差距可能继续扩大，日元近期再次承压。

日本央行能否继续收紧货币政策的不确定性也对日元构成压力，本周日元兑美元汇率逼近关键的 160 日元关口。

尽管官方强调的是货币波动的速度和无序性，而不是任何具体的汇率水平，但市场参与者认为 160 附近的区域是干预风险上升的区域。

最近，市场对日元的期权情绪变得更加看涨，反映出对冲日本干预风险的需求增加。

根据美国商品期货交易委员会上周五公布的数据，截至9月22日当周，杠杆交易者减少了对日元的多头头寸。

一周前，他们自 2025 年年中以来首次转看好该货币。

今年夏天，日元跌破 160 后，日本和美国自 1998 年以来首次协调购买日元。

根据日本财务省的数据，截至 8 月 26 日的一个月内，日本干预货币对交易的支出达到了创纪录的 15.4 万亿日元（974 亿美元）。

“日本官员的最新表态丝毫没有触及两个显而易见却又难以回避的问题：日本央行的表现远落后于其他央行，而且市场对套利交易的需求依然强劲。”——彭博社

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