BOJ's Hawkish Hopes Crushed, Yen Tumbles

The Japanese yen weakened against the US dollar after the Bank of Japan's (BOJ) meeting summary disappointed investors, dropping 0.5% to 158.21.

Analysts say that despite hawkish opinions from BOJ policymakers, they were not strong enough to support expectations for a consecutive rate hike this month.

Takuya Kanda, senior FX analyst at Gaitame.com Research Institute, noted that while there were many hawkish opinions, 'they were not hawkish enough to strengthen expectations for a consecutive rate hike.'

The BOJ's policy focus has shifted to preventing inflation from overshooting its target, and policymakers affirmed this in the summary from their last meeting when they raised the policy rate.