Dollar Drops Against Yen After US and Japan Confirm Rare Joint Intervention

The dollar fell sharply against the yen on Monday after Washington and Tokyo both confirmed they had intervened together in currency markets to halt the Japanese currency’s slide to its weakest level in four decades.

Japan’s finance minister, Satsuki Katayama, said the ministry had bought yen in coordination with the US Treasury on Friday. President Donald Trump had confirmed American involvement a day earlier, telling reporters aboard Air Force One that Japan wanted help and that the United States was always there for Japan. He described the move as a signal of friendship that would also benefit the US and the world economy.

The numbers

The yen had fallen to 163.24 to the dollar last month, its weakest since 1986. After regulators were suspected of stepping in late last week, the dollar fell below 160 yen. Following Monday’s formal announcement it dropped about 1 per cent further, to 156.34.

Katayama said the action was taken under the US-Japan finance ministers’ joint statement of September 2025, and had countered excessive volatility and disorderly movements in the yen. Tokyo would not hesitate to intervene jointly again, she said. US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent also confirmed the operation.

Why it is unusual

Governments rarely acknowledge currency intervention this openly. Neil Newman, head of strategy at Astris Advisory Japan, said the last comparable episode was the coordinated action that followed the 2011 earthquake and tsunami in northeastern Japan.

The Financial Times reported that the Federal Reserve Bank of New York sold euros to buy yen on the Treasury’s behalf, and characterised it as the first joint US-Japan intervention in nearly three decades.

The yen’s weakness reflects Japan’s low interest rates relative to other major economies, compounded this year by higher US rates, rising oil prices driven by the Iran war and persistent capital outflows. A weak currency has pushed up import costs and fed inflation, weighing on households across a region where equity markets have also been volatile, and on Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s approval ratings.

What we could not confirm

Accounts differ on how to date the precedent. Some coverage describes this as the first joint intervention since 2011; the Financial Times frames it as the first in nearly thirty years. The 2011 action was a G7 operation intended to weaken the yen, which is the opposite of Friday’s purpose. We have not reconciled the two framings and have not stated a single figure.