Japan could intervene if the yen falls to 155, says Mr. Yen.

• The Japanese yen reached its weakest point in four months against the dollar and its lowest since 2008 against the euro, following the Bank of Japan's exit from negative rates and before the U.S. Federal Reserve's interest rate decision on Wednesday.
• Sakakibara stated on Wednesday that Japanese authorities could intervene if the yen drops to 155 to 160 against the dollar.
• Sakakibara stated that the yen may reach 130 to the dollar by the end of this year or early next year.

According to a former top foreign exchange official, Eisuke Sakakibara, Japanese authorities may intervene if the yen sinks to 155 to 160 against the dollar.

On Tuesday, the Bank of Japan decided to end its negative rates regime, resulting in a sell-off of the Japanese currency. Governor Kazuo Ueda stated that monetary conditions would remain loose, as the Japanese economy is still fragile. He did not specify a terminal rate level.

On Wednesday, the yen reached its weakest point in four months against the dollar, dropping to approximately 151 and falling to its lowest level since 2008, ahead of the U.S. Federal Reserve's interest rate decision later in the day.

The president of the Institute for Indian Economic Studies, Sakakibara, stated on Wednesday that 155, 160 is a bit excessive. If this occurs, Japanese authorities, such as the Ministry of Finance, may intervene.

"The period of deflation is over," Sakakibara said, expecting the yen to weaken to 130 by the end of this year or early 2025.

During his tenure as Japan's vice minister of finance and international affairs in the late 1990s, Sakakibara, also known as "Mr Yen," exerted significant influence over the yen.

Despite other global central banks tightening policy in the last two years, decades of accommodative monetary policy in Japan have resulted in a concentration of carry trades in the Japanese yen.

The significant interest rate disparity between Japan and other countries has maintained the yen's weakness, as investors borrowed at lower costs in Japan and invested in higher-yielding currencies.