Yen surges to 157-yen range, sparking intervention speculation

2026-07-30

The yen surged and briefly traded in the 157 yen range to the dollar. The level was the strongest for the yen and weakest for the dollar since mid-May, and speculation spread in the market that the government and the Bank of Japan had intervened to buy yen.

Rapid rise

The yen was bought aggressively from just after 10:30 p.m. on the 30th, Japan time. Before the rise, it had been trading around 162.80 yen to the dollar, and the yen strengthened by about 5 yen against the dollar in roughly 50 minutes. Daisaku Ueno, chief foreign exchange strategist at Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley Securities, said, 'The price action suggests yen-buying intervention took place.'

Spillover beyond the dollar

The yen also rose against currencies other than the dollar. Against the euro, it briefly reached the 182.10 yen range per euro, the strongest level for the yen and weakest for the euro since early May. Compared with before the surge, the yen had strengthened by about 4.50 yen.

Intervention fears resurface

In the foreign exchange market, the dollar had been bought on uncertainty over the situation in the Middle East and inflation concerns linked to higher crude oil prices. Pressure to sell the yen has also been in focus amid caution over the aggressive fiscal policy pursued by the Sanae Takaichi administration. On the 29th, the U.S. Federal Reserve decided to keep its policy rate unchanged, while the Bank of Japan is holding a monetary policy meeting on the 30th and 31st.

The government and the Bank of Japan carried out yen-buying, dollar-selling intervention totaling about 11.7 trillion yen from late April through May. The yen's downtrend continued after that, and on July 23 it briefly hit 163.99 yen to the dollar, its weakest level since 1986. Market caution over another intervention had intensified. On April 30, when intervention occurred last time, the yen briefly fell to the 160.70 yen range before rising by about 5 yen to the 155.50 yen range.

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