Speaking after Friday's cabinet meeting, Finance Minister Katayama was asked directly about a rough week for the yen, which briefly slipped below \u00a5153 to the dollar before continuing to swing. As is customary, he declined to comment on the specific market move. But he was unusually direct about the underlying policy: "our response policy has not changed at all" since Japan and the United States issued a joint statement announcing coordinated intervention, and the ministry will keep working with the US Treasury to keep the market orderly.
Sidestepping Bessent's 'house' talk
The question that prompted that answer was pointed. A reporter noted that US Treasury Secretary Bessent, in a September 8 speech, said Washington knows in detail how Japan, the Bank of Japan and Japanese policymakers would move if they intervened in the yen market, implying the US holds information the market does not. Bessent reportedly called himself "the house." Katayama declined to assess what the remark meant, saying only that he had seen the coverage. He added that he had also seen the Wall Street Journal describe the phrase as a straightforward market view typical of someone with a hedge-fund background, and left it there.
A warmer note on Japan's growth pitch
Katayama also pointed to an August 31 Japan-US finance ministers' meeting and an official dinner afterward attended by Bessent and an executive he described as a representative of the US financial community. He said the discussion of Japan's growth program, which he called "Takaichinomics," pairing a strong economy with fiscal sustainability, drew encouragement and understanding from both counterparts.
What the briefing did not do is resolve the substance of Bessent's claim. Katayama would not say whether the US Treasury actually has advance insight into how Tokyo would move in an intervention, only that Japan's own posture has not shifted since the last joint action.