Japan Estimated to Have Injected Around 60 Trillion Won to Defend Yen... Possible U.S. Intervention

Estimated 6 to 7 Trillion Yen Injected for Yen Purchases and Dollar Sales

The Japanese government and the Bank of Japan are estimated to have intervened in the foreign exchange market with a maximum of 7 trillion yen (approximately 6.4 trillion KRW) recently in an effort to halt the decline in the value of the yen. There is also speculation in the market that the United States may have participated in purchasing yen as well.

On August 1st, Yonhap News, citing Japanese media outlets such as the Yomiuri Shimbun and Nikkei, reported that the "fiscal and other factors" item, which is affected by measures like foreign exchange market intervention, had decreased by 8.2 trillion yen in the Bank of Japan's forecast for current account balances as of the third.

Excluding the market forecast of 1 to 2 trillion yen, it is estimated that the Japanese authorities injected 6 to 7 trillion yen (approximately 5.5 to 6.4 trillion KRW) in buying yen and selling dollars.

Provided by Yonhap News

On July 30, on the New York foreign exchange market, the yen–dollar exchange rate fell by over 2% in about 50 minutes, dropping to as low as 157.80 yen to the dollar during the session. The value of the yen thus reached its strongest level in about two months.

There are growing views in the market that Japan and the United States may have taken the unusual step of jointly intervening to curb the weak yen. NHK reported that the US Department of the Treasury informed several banks via the Federal Reserve Bank of New York about the possibility of buying yen and instructed them to prepare for further measures.

There are also media reports that, at a US federal cabinet meeting on July 31, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent was photographed holding a notepad with the underlined phrase "To Do," and beneath it, the words "Japanese yen 5 billion–10 billion dollars" were written.

Meanwhile, this foreign exchange market intervention by the Japanese authorities is the first in about three months since late April and early May. At that time, the Japanese government injected a total of 11.7 trillion yen (approximately 10.7 trillion KRW) across several rounds—the largest amount in history—but was unable to reverse the trend of a weakening yen.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.