Yen Pulls Back From 40 Year Low After Joint US Japan Intervention

According to Al Jazeera, in a report published Friday, August 14, 2026 (23 Mordad 1405), the United States and Japan staged a coordinated intervention last week to halt the yen's slide after the currency fell to a 40 year low against the dollar. The intervention began on July 31 (9 Mordad), when the US Treasury started selling euros to buy yen while Japanese authorities bought yen simultaneously. The yen, which had fallen to 163 against the dollar for the first time since 1986, recovered to 157 to the dollar by Wednesday, August 12 (21 Mordad).

Al Jazeera noted the US last staged a joint currency intervention with Japan in 2011, following the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami. ING global head of markets Chris Turner told Al Jazeera that Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's mix of growth focused, fiscally loose and monetarily loose policies has weakened the yen and created an inflation problem. The report said the yen's weakness, rooted in Japan's decades long economic stagnation and compounded by new pressure from the US Israel war on Iran, has raised import costs for Japanese households.