Tag - yen

 
 

YEN

The Japanese currency climbed as much as 1% to ¥149.95 against the dollar on Thursday, a level it hasn’t touched since Dec. 9.
BUSINESS / Economy
Feb 20, 2025
Yen advances past ¥150 per dollar as BOJ rate-hike bets ramp up
Japan’s currency climbed as much as 1% to ¥149.95 against the dollar, a level it hasn’t touched since Dec. 9.
As an alternative way of wagering on yen strength, some firms are using strategies involving European currencies, rather than the U.S. dollar, to profit from a widening rate differential with Japan.
BUSINESS / Markets
Feb 17, 2025
Dollar swings drive creative yen bulls to European-currency trades
Some firms are using strategies involving European currencies, rather than the dollar, to profit from a widening rate differential with Japan.
A monitor in Tokyo shows the yen at the ¥153 level against the dollar on Wednesday.
BUSINESS / Markets
Feb 12, 2025
Yen underperforms major currencies on Trump tariff uncertainties
Japan’s currency has dropped to ¥153.73 against the dollar, its weakest level in a week and lagging all major peers.
A monitor in Tokyo shows the yen at the ¥155 level against the dollar on Monday, when it began rallying after a sharp decline in the previous week.
BUSINESS / Markets
Feb 7, 2025
Yen’s weekly surge underscores growing case for a hawkish BOJ
The Japanese currency has rallied more than 2% this week, heading for the biggest gain since late November.
Finance Minister Katsunobu Kato holds a virtual meeting with U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent last week.
BUSINESS / Economy
Feb 2, 2025
Japan to closely monitor impact on yen of Trump tariffs, Kato says
Kato spoke as the world braces for first salvo in Trump's tariff war, with general levies of 25% on Canada and Mexico and 10% on China.
Branded bags are displayed at a secondhand store in Tokyo in December.
BUSINESS
Feb 2, 2025
Secondhand shops rush for branded goods in Japan
Some operators have partnered with department stores, while others have use AI to determine the value of vintage luxury goods.
Despite Bank of Japan Gov. Kazuo Ueda’s efforts to explain his thinking, many struggle to grasp the BOJ's position as businesses face high costs and weak demand while consumers deal with rising prices and stagnant wages.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jan 28, 2025
The Bank of Japan’s communication challenges
Despite limited developments that would justify a policy shift since December, Japan's central bank nevertheless went ahead to raise interest rates.
Bank of Japan Gov. Kazuo Ueda attends a news conference after the central bank's policy meeting in Tokyo on Friday. The BOJ raised its rate by a quarter-point to 0.5% that day.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jan 26, 2025
Japan’s central bank drops the drama and wins on rates
The quarter-point increase, which took the main rate to 0.5%, was probably the most telegraphed this century.
Japan's exports gained 2.8% in December from a year ago, led by chipmaking machinery and semiconductor parts, government data shows.
BUSINESS / Economy
Jan 23, 2025
Japan’s exports rose in December ahead of anticipated Trump tariffs
Exports measured in value gained 2.8% from a year ago led by chipmaking machinery and semiconductor parts, although shipments fell in terms of volume.
Investment trusts that cater to Japanese individuals bought a net ¥10.4 trillion of overseas equities and funds last year after the government expanded the scope of the Nippon Individual Savings Account system.
BUSINESS / Economy
Jan 23, 2025
Japan’s love of foreign stocks risks pushing the yen even lower
Investment trusts that cater to Japanese individuals bought a net ¥10.4 trillion of overseas equities and funds last year.
Instead of the Bank of Japan's actions strengthening the yen as once hoped, recent steps have only caused further weakening.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jan 22, 2025
Ueda’s doctrine for the BOJ is finally emerging
Instead of the Bank of Japan's actions strengthening the yen as once hoped, recent steps have only caused further weakening.
The country's net assets, or the value of properties, cash, deposits, stocks and other assets in the country minus that of loans and other debts, totaled ¥4,158.4 trillion at the end of 2023, up 4.1% from a year before, a Cabinet Office estimate showed Monday.
BUSINESS / Economy
Jan 21, 2025
Japan's national wealth hit record ¥4 quadrillion at end of 2023
Of the total, households accounted for a record ¥2.97 quadrillion, up 3.7%, marking the fifth consecutive year of growth.
The influx of foreign tourists in Japan is pushing up hotel room prices, forcing some business travelers to stay at capsule hotels.
BUSINESS / Economy
Jan 15, 2025
Japan's tourism boom prices out local business travelers
The average price of a basic room at a business hotel in Tokyo has nearly doubled between 2019 and last year.
A visitor holds a ¥1,000 banknote to offer a prayer on the first business day of the year at the Kanda Myojin shrine in Tokyo on Monday. The yen has declined against the dollar for four straight years amid a wide gap between interest rates in Japan and the United States.
BUSINESS / Markets
Jan 10, 2025
Yen intervention risk creeps higher as U.S. jobs report approaches
The yen is within reach of ¥160 per dollar, a breach of which would increase concern about the weak currency’s impact on business and consumers.
The yen hit its lowest level against the dollar since July on Tuesday, prompting a warning from Finance Minister Katsunobu Kato over speculative moves.
BUSINESS / Markets
Jan 7, 2025
Japan warns on speculative FX moves after yen hits six month low
Any further changes in expectations over the trajectory of rates in the U.S. or Japan could sharply ramp up speculation of renewed intervention.
A stack of ¥10,000 bills equivalent to the year-end balance of banknotes in circulation would be 1,240 kilometers high, or about 328 times higher than the 3,776-meter Mount Fuji.
BUSINESS
Dec 31, 2024
Japan's year-end banknote balance down for second straight year
The drop resulted from people increasingly opting for cashless payments.
Ground Self-Defense Force members conduct a military drill next to an anti-ship missile unit on Miyako Island in Okinawa Prefecture in April 2022.
JAPAN / FOCUS
Dec 29, 2024
Japan defense spending goals hit by inflation, weak yen and political uncertainty
A slew of obstacles are jeopardizing Tokyo's pursuit of raising defense spending to 2% of gross domestic product by fiscal 2027.
Bank of Japan Gov. Kazuo Ueda appears to want to keep his options open by noting the need to keep rates low to support the economy while flagging the risk of maintaining them at low levels for too long.
BUSINESS / Economy
Dec 25, 2024
Ueda avoids giving clear hint on chances of January rate hike
The Bank of Japan governor is sticking to his view that the central bank needs to keep monitoring risks for the economy.
The Bank of Japan headquarters in Tokyo. Strategists are now feeling less optimistic on the yen’s outlook after Bank of Japan Gov. Kazuo Ueda opened up the possibility of waiting longer for the next rate hike.
BUSINESS / Markets
Dec 23, 2024
Yen bulls retreat as Fed and BOJ dim hopes of quick narrowing of rate gap
Wide gaps in interest rates could bring back the yen carry trade, in which investors borrow in Japan and deploy the funds in higher-yielding markets.
The Bank of Japan headquarters in Tokyo on Thursday
BUSINESS / Economy / FOCUS
Dec 21, 2024
Economists see BOJ's policy review as insufficient
The massive easing policy has caused adverse effects, such as a loosening of fiscal discipline, economists said.

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