Joint Yen Intervention Likely to Continue, Says Former BOJ Official

A former Bank of Japan official believes that Japan and the US will intervene again in the foreign exchange market if the yen's downtrend continues. Atsushi Takeuchi, a former BOJ official involved in Tokyo's market forays over a decade ago, said that joint intervention is likely to happen again if the yen shows signs of resuming its decline.

The US and Japan recently conducted a rare joint yen-buying intervention to combat the sell-off in the currency. Takeuchi stated that this latest joint action was highly effective in creating market perceptions that one-way weakening of the yen will not continue.

He added that 'if I were running a hedge fund, I won't think about making bets on dollar-yen now.' The yen is expected to move within a range of 155 to 162 per dollar for the time being, according to Takeuchi. He also predicted that if the yen manages to stay stronger than 160 per dollar for another week or so, markets will see that level as the near-term bottom and start pushing up the currency.