Japan spent 56 trillion won in a single day at the end of April in record yen defense

[Financial News] The Japanese government was confirmed to have bought yen and sold dollars on a massive scale at the end of April, spending 627.87 billion yen, or about 56.2 trillion won, in a single day to curb the yen's sharp decline. That was the largest foreign exchange intervention ever on a daily basis. But as yen weakness deepened again, Japan was eventually forced to intervene jointly with the United States.
On the 7th, Japan's Ministry of Finance Japan (MOF) announced that the Japanese government and the Bank of Japan (BOJ) had carried out yen-buying, dollar-selling intervention worth 627.87 billion yen on April 30.
That was the largest yen-buying intervention ever on a single day. The previous record was 591.85 billion yen, carried out on April 29, 2024.
The Japanese government continued to intervene in the foreign exchange market on May 4 and May 6, following April 30.
It spent 780.2 billion yen on May 4 and 4.6759 trillion yen on May 6. The total amount deployed over the three days came to 11.7349 trillion yen.
At the time, the widening interest-rate gap between the United States and Japan, along with instability in the Middle East, pushed the yen past 160 per dollar and sent its value sharply lower. Analysts believe the Japanese government took advantage of the low-volume Golden Week holiday period to launch large-scale intervention.
Immediately after the intervention, the yen strengthened to around 155 per dollar, and speculation spread in the market that the Japanese government had directly stepped into the foreign exchange market.
However, the effect did not last long. Yen weakness resumed, the currency again moved above 160 per dollar, and by the end of last month it had fallen close to 164.
In the end, Japan carried out foreign exchange intervention together with the United States by buying yen.
On the 3rd, when the two governments officially announced the joint intervention, the yen plunged to the low 155 range per dollar.
Market participants estimate the scale of the latest U.S.-Japan joint intervention at 6 trillion to 7 trillion yen on the 30th of last month and about 5 trillion yen on the 31st.
The yen is currently trading at around 158 per dollar.

[email protected] Kim Kyung-min Reporter