US and Japan Carry Out Coordinated Currency Intervention to Halt the Yen's Slide

The United States and Japan carried out a coordinated currency intervention last week to halt the yen's slide, after the currency fell to a 40 year low against the US dollar. According to Al Jazeera, reporting Thursday, August 13, 2026 (22 Mordad 1405), the intervention began on July 31 (9 Mordad) when the US Treasury sold euros to buy yen while Japanese authorities simultaneously bought yen. The yen, which had fallen as far as 163 to the dollar, recovered to 157 to the dollar by Wednesday, August 12 (21 Mordad). Market experts told Al Jazeera that Washington's main concern is the risk of Japan selling large quantities of US Treasury securities to raise funds needed to defend the yen, a move that could push up US interest rates. Japan's holdings of US Treasuries stood at 1.114 trillion dollars as of May. The last time the US intervened to support the yen was in 2011, following the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami.