Japan's finance minister and the U.S. Treasury secretary spoke by phone at 9:00 p.m. Japan time on September 25. Finance Minister Katayama and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent reaffirmed that the yen's undervaluation is a matter of concern, a position the two governments tie to discussions at the Japan-U.S. summit meeting and to a statement by Prime Minister Takaichi. Tokyo Brief covered the summit-level concern in earlier coverage of the Japan-U.S. summit.
What the call covered
According to the Ministry of Finance's account of the call, Katayama and Bessent also exchanged views on developments in financial markets and reaffirmed their intention to further strengthen Japan-U.S. cooperation. The ministry issued the account under its international-policy communications, credited to the Ministry of Finance, Japan.
A second explicit reaffirmation
A currency remark folded into a leaders' summit can pass as a passing comment. A separate ministerial call between the two countries' top finance officials, logged in its own readout, reaffirms that concern in explicit terms tied to the summit and Prime Minister Takaichi's statement. The readout gives no figures on the yen's level, no timetable, and no description of any policy step beyond the shared statement of concern.