Yen-buying intervention on July 31 may have totaled 5 trillion yen

2026-08-03

Scale of intervention by the government and BOJ

Market views are growing that the yen-buying foreign exchange intervention carried out by the government and the Bank of Japan on July 31 was worth about 5 trillion yen. The estimate was based on the BOJ's August 3 projection for current account balances on the 4th. The government and BOJ are believed to have intervened on two consecutive days from July 30.

In a yen-buying intervention, the BOJ buys yen from the market, moving funds to the national treasury and reducing the current account balances that private financial institutions hold at the central bank. As foreign exchange trades settle two business days later, the effect of the July 31 intervention is reflected in the balance on August 4.

Estimate based on current account gap

Money market brokers that handle interbank transactions had expected the decline in current account balances in the absence of intervention, due to 'fiscal and other factors,' to range from 566 billion yen to 670 billion yen. By contrast, the BOJ's outlook showed a decline of 1.142 trillion yen, making it possible to infer an intervention amount of about 5 trillion yen from the difference between the two. The Ministry of Finance will release on the 28th its record of foreign exchange intervention from July 30 to August 26.

Back-to-back yen-buying interventions

Finance Minister Satsuki Katayama said on the 3rd that 'we carried out yen-buying intervention on July 31 Japan time in coordination with the U.S. Treasury.'

The government and BOJ also carried out yen-buying intervention on July 30, and based on the drop in current account balances, market speculation is that the scale was 6 trillion yen to 7 trillion yen. According to the Ministry of Finance, the government and BOJ also intervened in the market with 11.7349 trillion yen between April 28 and May 27.

The largest annual yen-buying intervention on record was 15.3 trillion yen in 2024. This year, the total amount of intervention since April is already believed to have exceeded 20 trillion yen, and it is expected to surpass the annual record.

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