日本当局は21日に円が対ドルで32年ぶり安値に落ち込んだ後、円買い介入に恐らく300億ドル（約４兆4000億円）余りを先週費やしたと、英紙フィナンシャル・タイムズ（ＦＴ）がトレーダーらの推計を基に伝えた。
財務省当局者は介入を実施したかどうかについてコメントを避けたものの、政府に近い関係者２人が介入があったことを確認したとＦＴ紙が報じた。関係者の氏名は示していない。
円相場は米国時間21日に急反発し、日本経済新聞は日本当局が再び介入したと報じた。政府・日銀は先月、円が１ドル＝145円90銭に下落した後、1998年以来となる介入に踏み切った。財務省は円を支えるため９月に約200億ドルを費やした。
日本は先週、円買い介入に300億ドル余り費やした公算大
Angela Cullen
https://www.bloomberg.co.jp/news/articles/2022-10-23/RK7G19DWRGG001
Japan intervenes again to support yen against U.S. dollar: sources
KYODO NEWS
https://english.kyodonews.net/news/2022/10/2a1575312140-urgent-japan-intervenes-to-support-yen-against-us-dollar-sources.html
Japan intervened in the currency market again Friday during New York trading to stem the yen’s slide against the U.S. dollar, following its first such attempt last month to support the Japanese currency in 24 years, sources close to the matter said Saturday.
The country’s currency surged by nearly 6 yen to 146.20 within hours Friday in New York, with the rapid swing fueling speculation that Japanese authorities conducted a yen-buying, dollar-selling market intervention for the second time.
Japan’s top currency diplomat Masato Kanda kept silent on whether Tokyo had made a fresh intervention like the one last month.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, who is visiting Australia, told reporters later Saturday, “We are watching foreign exchange movements with a high sense of urgency. We will maintain our policy of responding appropriately to excessive fluctuations.”
After the sudden surge, the Japanese currency eventually weakened against the dollar to 147.74-84 at 5 p.m. in New York, compared with 150.47-49 late Friday afternoon in Tokyo.
Before the intervention, market participants were cautiously testing the downside of the Japanese unit, pushing the dollar to 151.94 yen.
Based on the currency movements overnight, “a considerably large-scale intervention is believed to have been carried out,” said Yuichi Kodama, chief economist at the Meiji Yasuda Research Institute.
But market participants say such efforts will only help slow the pace of the yen’s slide. As long as the gap between U.S. and Japanese interest rates remains, the “trend is again likely to move toward a weakening yen,” said Kodama.
The dollar drew buying as the 10-year U.S. Treasury yield maintained its upward tone after touching a new 14-year high on Thursday, following hawkish remarks from Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia President Patrick Harker.
Earlier Friday in London, the yen slid to the upper 151 zone against the dollar on the view that the U.S. Federal Reserve will continue with its aggressive interest rate hikes to tame rising inflation.
The yen last traded in the zone in July 1990, when Japan was in the final stages of its asset-inflated bubble economy.
Market analysts said caution about another intervention had limited the yen from falling sharply, though they saw the impact of the previous yen-buying, dollar-selling operation by authorities as short-lived, given the dynamics of currency markets.
Japan conducted a record 2.84 trillion yen ($19 billion) yen-buying, dollar-selling intervention on Sept. 22 to support its sagging currency, whose value sank by more than 20 percent from the beginning of this year.
Monetary authorities since repeatedly warned that they would again take necessary action against volatile yen fluctuations. Speculation had grown that authorities had already carried out “stealth” intervention to slow the yen’s decline without making announcements.
The yen’s slump to 32-year lows versus the dollar comes as a blow to Japanese households already hit by the rising cost of living. It inflates imported prices of energy, food and other raw materials for resource-scarce Japan, and the government plans to draw up an economic package to ease their pain and support the economy.
The primary driver of yen weakness against the dollar is the widening interest rate gap between Japan and the United States as their monetary policies differ.
Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda has ruled out raising interest rates in the next few years because its 2 percent inflation target will likely be achieved in a stable and sustainable fashion.
The U.S. Federal Reserve, for its part, is expected to go ahead with further rate hikes as inflation has been accelerating far faster than in Japan.
Finance Minister Shunichi Suzuki has said the United States showed a “certain degree of understanding” when Japan intervened in September.
**
Japan ramps up intervention threats after yen slides past key 150 level
by Leika Kihara and Daniel Leussink
https://www.reuters.com/markets/currencies/japans-finance-minister-vows-appropriate-steps-tackle-volatile-yen-moves-2022-10-20/
Japanese policymakers made fresh threats of intervention on Thursday after the yen tumbled past the key psychological level of 150 to the dollar, keeping investors on high alert in case Tokyo steps into markets again to support the fragile currency.
After the yen’s first break beyond the symbolic mark since 1990, top currency diplomat Masato Kanda told reporters that authorities were “always ready to take necessary action as excessive volatility has become increasingly unacceptable.”
Kanda, vice finance minister for international affairs, said he will not comment on whether Japan was intervening now or have stepped into the currency market earlier on Thursday.
The breach of the closely watched level heightens pressure for Tokyo to step into the currency market again to rein in the yen’s relentless decline, which is adding to the country’s already swelling import bill.
It also puts the Bank of Japan (BOJ) in the spotlight ahead of a policy meeting next week, when it is widely expected to maintain its ultra-low interest rates that are blamed for pushing down the yen.
Japanese Finance Minister Shunichi Suzuki also told reporters after the yen’s latest slide that he will “take decisive action” against excessive, sharp yen moves.
“We cannot tolerate excessive, rapid currency market moves driven by speculative action,” Suzuki said. “We will continue to watch currency moves meticulously and with a sense of urgency,” he said. Suzuki said he won’t comment on specific yen levels.
(sk)
何百億ドルを費やしても、円安の流れは止まらない。
500億ドルがどれだけのおカネか、役人や政治家はわかっているのだろうか。
500億円は、レートによって7兆円にも、８兆円にもなる。
決して小さな額ではない。
日本が５百億ドルを失い、アメリカやヨーロッパの銀行が５百億ドルを儲ける。
外国の会社が、こんなに容易く５百億ドルを儲けるなんて、なんだか不思議だ。
悪い冗談にしか思えない。