Former top currency diplomat at Japan Ministry of Fiance Hiroshi Watanabe spoke with Reuters:
- no need for Japan to intervene in currency market to stem yen falls
- Japan intervening solo in currency market would be 'meaningless' as current fx moves driven by broad dollar gains
- dollar/yen is overshooting somewhat now, may briefly hit 145 later this month but such rises likely won't last long
- Japan intervening solo to stem yen falls would be waste of money as markets would know Tokyo has limits to how much reserves it can tap to continue with such action
- no need for govt to respond even if dollar briefly hits 145, more important to look at whether such levels are sustained long enough to hurt corporate margins
- don't think BOJ will raise interest rates just to stem yen falls
---
Watanabe was in charge of order FX intervention in his role at the MoF.
USD/JPY has pierced 114: