Japan's finance minister said a joint statement with her US counterpart on currency moves remains live, and that Tokyo will act on disorderly or excessively speculative swings in the yen. Finance Minister Katayama made the remarks at a press conference on 2 November, the day before the US midterm elections.
Yen: no comment on the level
A questioner noted that the yen has been trading in a narrow range near ¥157 to the dollar, roughly three months after coordinated intervention with the US, and asked for an assessment of currency policy. Katayama declined to discuss specific levels. She said neither she nor the government would call the current level good or inappropriate.
She did say conditions looked better than before, while noting that the yen had at one point reached ¥164. She pointed to discussions between the two countries' leaders, in which Prime Minister Takaichi described an undervalued yen as a problem, and to a phone call between the Japanese and US finance ministers at the end of September. Macro-level thinking in the two countries is broadly aligned, she said. Both authorities, she added, are firmly committed to avoiding excessive volatility and speculative or disorderly moves.
Midterms: continuity argument
Asked how the government would approach markets around the US elections on 3 November, Katayama acknowledged that the vote matters and that the outcome could change things. She argued that the president does not change overnight and that her counterpart is probably staying in post. On that basis the joint statement stays in force, she said, and the two sides would act in line with it if moves became disorderly or excessively speculative. She said coordination and consultation are frequent and will continue.
The conference summary does not say what the joint statement contains beyond her description of it. It does not name any trigger level for action.
Budget: better tax estimates
On the budget, Katayama said Takaichi told ministers at the Council on Economic and Fiscal Policy meeting on 29 October to raise the accuracy and transparency of revenue estimates, and to reflect the result in the budget for fiscal 2027, the year beginning April 2027. The questioner framed the instruction as covering tax revenue and non-tax revenue as well as spending.
Katayama said getting the tax estimate right matters even as spending and revenue are reviewed across the board, and that the method is improved continually. She said the economic and price outlook has changed from past years and that the ministry will aim for appropriate estimates. Information on the method is set out in the explanation of the tax and stamp revenue budget submitted to the Diet with the budget, and is published on the Ministry of Finance website, she said. She promised to keep working on transparency.
The summary gives no specific change to the estimating method and no timetable for one.