Bank of Japan Gov. Kazuo Ueda is starting to take some ownership of the weak yen — not before time.
The end of negative interest rates, a step rich in imagery but small in substance, did not do much to stem the currency’s retreat. Something more is needed, absent a decisive shift in the trajectory of the dollar, the lodestar of the global financial system.
For the broad constellation of economic officials within Japan, it is now all hands on deck. As a general rule, BOJ chiefs are comfortable ceding yen policy to the Finance Ministry, with the monetary authority acting as the ministry’s banker.