Japan spends more than $30 bn to prop up yen: Reports

TOKYO

Japan spent at least 5.0 trillion yen ($32 billion) in the foreign exchange market, according to multiple reports, in its first intervention to prop up the currency since 2024.

The yen, trading just shy of 160 yen to the dollar, is close to its level from the summer of 2024, when Japanese authorities spent billions of dollars to boost its value.

Officials had hinted in recent days at potential intervention for the currency, which has weakened against the dollar in recent months amid the Iran war and rising oil prices, as well as the gap between U.S. and Japanese interest rates.

The intervention on Apr. 30 was around 5 trillion-6 trillion yen ($32 billion-$38 billion), according to market participants’ estimates based on current account deposit data released by the Bank of Japan on May 1, Jiji Press and the Nikkei business daily reported.

The Yomiuri Shimbun reported similar figures on May 2, citing an unnamed government source as confirming that the government had intervened.

The reports come after Japan’s finance minister hinted strongly April 30 that Tokyo was close to intervening in the market to support the yen, after the currency slipped to its lowest level against the dollar since mid-2024.