Japan rejects Trump’s currency manipulation charges

Japanese Finance Minister Katsunobu Kato rejected Donald Trump’s claim that Tokyo is manipulating the yen to gain an unfair trade advantage over the United States. “We don’t adopt policies that undermine the (Japanese) currency. If you think back to our forex market interventions in recent years, you can understand what I mean,” Kato said in a press conference on Tuesday. He added that he spoke with U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent in January, and both sides agreed to forex.

Trump accuses Japan and China of currency manipulation

Kato responded to Trump’s tariff threat on Monday. “I’ve called Xi Jinping, and I’ve called the Japanese leader and said you can’t continue to reduce and decompose the currency. You can’t do that because it’s not fair to us. It’s hard for us to make tractors here, caterpillars when Japan, China and elsewhere kill their currencies, which means pushing it down,” Trump from the White House said. “All of these things add up. The way you can easily solve it is tariffs,” he added.

Between the end of 2020 and the first half of In 2024, the yen depreciated by about 60% against the US dollar. Last year, it briefly crossed 161 mark The dollar was violated for the first time since 1986. To combat the decline, the Japanese government and Japanese banks made yen purchases and Interventions for yen sales are from April to May and July. The yen strengthened the dollar after Trump’s comments. On Monday, around 5pm, Japanese currency trading was above 150 mark Against green. By 11 a.m. the next day, it was below 149.

This is not the first time Trump accuses Japan and China of manipulating their currencies to gain an unfair trade advantage over his country. During the first semester of his term, he said the two countries and Germany committed “global free trade” in their trade deals with the United States.

Related Articles