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The story
The Bank of Japan has decided to raise its policy rate by 0.25%, with reportedly only two board members dissenting. Rate hikes are generally seen as yen-bullish, but the currency market moved the opposite way — the yen weakened, with the dollar trading in the ¥156 range, catching many market watchers off guard. On 5ch, threads buzzed with takes that the hike was “already priced in” and speculation about pressure from the US side to raise rates, while the conversation also drifted into the impact on people with variable-rate mortgages and a mysterious episode where the yen-pegged stablecoin JPYC briefly traded far off its ¥1 peg — taking the discussion from currency markets to home loans to crypto.
What people said
Japan's interest rates are just abnormally low compared to everywhere else, they probably don't even realize it lol
And property values are gonna crash because of the rate hikes too, you know
I bought mine 10 years ago, just watching from the sidelines with popcorn
but nope, still basically yen-strong as ever
No way it's gonna move that much lol
The whole country would drop dead from shock lol
Pretty sure you're the only one calling 156 yen "yen-strong"
Seems like he won't be able to sound dovish anymore
He'll just mumble something vague either way
Which country's citizens are you even talking about?
Japanese people are the ones screaming over this sudden yen strength
Fixed rates these days are basically only for rich people
Over 3% is just insane
When I bought mine, fixed was like 1.8%
well, variable was around 0.4% back then
never imagined inflation would get this bad and the policy rate would actually end up rising this much
even if all of you moved at once it wouldn't shift the market by even 1%
Fishing for someone to say "wow, that's actually impressive"?
Of course consumption is cooling in Japan
rate hikes cool down spending, you know
go ahead and explain why cooling spending even further while it's already cooling is the right call
If they were only gonna hike 0.25%, wasn't there an option to just not hike at all and do nothing?
Going by how the market moved, it's more like: "We were bracing for maybe a 0.5% hike since Bessent was pushing so hard, but guess it didn't happen after all — phew, relief" (Bessent = US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent)
That's not really the point
There was a chance to buy at ¥57 to the dollar yesterday, right?
Anyone miss out on riding that yen-strength wave?
What is this?
JPYC is supposed to be issued at ¥1, but for a while it was trading at around ¥3 per JPYC (JPYC = a yen-pegged stablecoin)
Hmm, not sure
I don't trade FX or anything
maybe there was some kind of glitch
If it settles today, the FX rate used is from around 9:55am, so it won't reflect what's in the thread title
well, semiconductor stocks bounced back yesterday, so you're buying in a bit higher because of that anyway
Background and Key Points
Since 2024, the Bank of Japan has been gradually normalizing policy after years of zero and negative interest rates, and the fact that only two board members dissented from this 0.25% hike suggests support for tightening has grown considerably within the board. Textbook theory holds that rate hikes should strengthen a currency, but the yen weakening instead was a major point of debate in the thread. Behind this lies a mix of factors: the view that the hike was “already priced in” and thus a non-event for markets, pressure from the US side (references to Treasury Secretary Bessent) to raise rates further, and speculation around comments from figures like Kevin Warsh, seen as a potential future Fed chair — all part of the interplay between US and Japanese monetary policy expectations. One point readers may get wrong: the rate hike doesn’t affect all mortgage holders equally — as the thread notes, it’s borrowers on variable-rate loans who feel the direct impact, while those on fixed rates are largely insulated. As for JPYC, it’s a yen-pegged stablecoin normally issued at parity with the yen (¥1), and the episode where it briefly traded as high as ¥3 was left unexplained in the thread — the cause remains unconfirmed.
*This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Nandemo Jikkyo G) thread “BOJ: “We’re hiking 0.25%! Only 2 people were against it!” Investors: “Guess we’re selling yen then~” → Yen crashes hard.”
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