Currency traders got a rare glimpse behind closed doors this week: according to Japan’s finance minister, U.S. President Donald Trump personally raised concerns about yen weakness during a summit with Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York.
What happened
Finance Minister Satsuki Katayama told reporters in Tokyo that Trump expressed concern about the yen’s continued slide during the meeting, and that Takaichi responded by acknowledging an undervalued yen was “problematic.” It’s unusual for details of leader-level currency discussions to be made public at all — governments typically keep this kind of exchange confidential — and analysts read the disclosure as a signal of how seriously both capitals are now treating the issue.
The remarks follow the two countries’ coordinated intervention on July 31, and Katayama said she plans to keep coordinating closely with U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on foreign exchange matters going forward. Japan’s Minister for Economic Growth Strategy, Minoru Kiuchi, added separately that the era of loose, stimulus-driven “Abenomics” policy — which relied partly on a weak yen to support exports — is effectively over.
Why USD/JPY keeps grinding higher anyway
Despite the verbal intervention, the pair has clawed back much of what it lost in September’s earlier sell-off and is now hovering around a tight cluster of moving averages. A sustained break higher would put the psychological 160 level back in view — the same zone where the two countries physically intervened over the summer. The underlying driver hasn’t changed: Japan’s policy rate sits near 1.0%, versus a Federal Reserve target range that just moved to 3.75%–4.00%, keeping the rate differential wide even as Tokyo talks tougher.
Japanese authorities conducted rate checks on Friday — a step that traders widely view as a precursor to direct intervention — which is itself a sign officials are watching the level closely.