US and Japan Unite on Rare Yen Intervention

The US Treasury and Japan's Finance Ministry have taken an extraordinary joint step to stabilize the Japanese yen, which has been in free fall. According to a Reuters photo of a notepad used by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent during a recent cabinet meeting, the two governments plan to buy $5-10 billion worth of yen.

This move comes after Japan's repeated interventions have failed to halt the yen's decline, which has reached 40-year lows. The dollar-yen exchange rate had climbed to almost 164 yen in recent weeks, a level not seen since 1986.

The US Treasury had alerted several banks to be prepared for potential yen-market intervention and informed them of their plan to buy Japanese Yen (JPY) worth $5-10 billion. The Financial Times reported that the US bought yen during Friday's trading to assist the ailing currency, marking Washington's first direct yen-buying operation in over ten years.