Japanese Minister of Finance Taro Aso said that one-sided speculative movements in the US dollar-yen rate are “extremely concerning,” the Nikkei newspaper reported yesterday.
Japan will carefully watch currency markets to ensure speculation does not continue and will take action as might be necessary, Aso told reporters at Haneda Airport late on Saturday.
The yen surged against the US dollar to ￥106.5 on Friday for an 18-month high after the Bank of Japan did not deliver further monetary easing as markets had expected. The yen has climbed about 12 percent this year against the US dollar.
Photo: AP
Aso’s comments came as the US is stepping up rhetoric on foreign-exchange practices with a semi-annual US Treasury report saying Japan is among countries that have been put on a watch list.
Aso said Friday’s report in no way constrains Japan’s ability to respond should any action be needed, according to the Nikkei report.
The US also put Taiwan, China, Germany and South Korea on the list, saying it will monitor policies to gauge whether they provide an unfair trade advantage over the US.
The five countries have met two of three criteria used to judge practices. If a country meets all three criteria, it could eventually be cut off from some US development financing and excluded from US government contracts.
Taiwan made the list because of its current-account surplus and persistent intervention to weaken the currency, according to the department.
China, Japan, Germany and South Korea were flagged as a result of their trade and current-account surpluses, the US Department of the Treasury said.
The report said that Japan has not intervened in the foreign exchange market in more than four years.
The US Treasury said it is increasingly important that Japan use all policy levers, including fiscal policy and structural reforms, to lift growth.
Last month, US Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew urged Japan to focus on boosting domestic demand instead of exports as the yen rises.
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