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The story
In New York foreign exchange trading on Monday, the 21st, the yen fell to the low-157 range against the dollar. It had closed the previous Friday, the 18th, in the upper-156 range amid wariness over possible Bank of Japan currency intervention, but at the BOJ’s policy meeting that day, an additional rate hike was approved even though two of the nine board members voted against it, leading markets to scale back expectations of another hike anytime soon. Meanwhile, with views circulating that the US Federal Reserve may raise rates once more before year-end, traders bought back dollars on the assessment that the US-Japan interest rate gap won’t narrow. Reactions on 5ch were split — from frustration with the government’s and the BOJ’s handling of the situation, to skepticism that the rate gap alone explains the weak yen, to voices welcoming the resulting stock rally.
[NEW YORK — Takeshi Kise, LONDON — Daisuke Ichikawa] In New York foreign exchange trading on Monday, the 21st, the yen was trading in the low-157 range against the dollar. In New York trading the previous Friday, the 18th, wariness about a possible yen-buying, dollar-selling intervention by the Japanese government and the Bank of Japan had spread, and the yen closed in the upper-156 range.
According to market sources, the BOJ on the 18th conducted a “rate check” — contacting financial institutions to ask about exchange rate levels, a step normally taken as a precursor to intervention. Wariness about intervention remains strong in Monday’s market too, but the yen is being sold on the view that the US-Japan interest rate gap won’t narrow.
The BOJ decided on an additional rate hike at its policy meeting on the 18th, but with two of its nine board members voting against the decision, markets scaled back expectations of an early further hike. Meanwhile, there is a view that the US Federal Reserve (Fed) will raise rates once more before the end of the year.
Source: yomiuri.co.jp / Original article here
What people said
How much longer can they keep intervening, anyway?
It's the BOJ itself being slow to act.
And Takaichi is making them even slower.
Whether there'll even be another one is unclear.
Of course the yen's going to keep weakening.
In the end the US-Japan rate gap is what moves the exchange rate the most.
Since nobody knows whether the BOJ will keep hiking from here,
it's reasonable to think the gap won't close.
Well, before the rate check the yen briefly touched the 158 range,
so the rate check did push it back by about 2 yen.
News article:
"Yen falls, briefly hits 158 range — sold off despite BOJ rate hike, on 2 dissenting votes"
Global Markets
Sept 18, 2026, 12:27 PM (updated 6:56 PM) [Subscriber-only article]
https://www.nikkei.com/article/DGXZQOUB1809Y0Y6A910C2000000/
No sense of judgment on the people who were shrieking "serves you right, investors!" just because it briefly touched 153 and they thought that meant a strong-yen trend.
Back under PM Ishiba it was even in the 140 range at one point.
Just sell off all the US Treasuries that are causing the weak yen and rising prices — problem solved.
No way the Takaichi cabinet can do that when they just handed over 80 trillion yen (to the US).
Moving closer to US rate levels would be suicide.
What a joke.
iPhone prices — the US price only went up $100,
but the yen price went up by about 80,000 yen.
Surely people had figured it out by then?
It's just the rankings slipping — the actual suicide count is at an all-time low.
In real life, QOL (quality of life) is higher now than back when it was 80 yen to the dollar.
Watching Americans work two jobs just to get by despite high salaries reminds me of Japan's strong-yen era, when unpaid overtime was the norm and people worked every waking hour.
Can't wait to see how much my holdings jump when trading resumes after the holiday 😊
Thank you, PM Takaichi 😊
Though that would be the end of the Japanese economy.
And then people show up insisting something that's already finished isn't finished 🤣 (noting that down)
"Naphtha shortage will wreck Japan! Stocks will crash!"
"Rate hikes will crash stocks! A Truss-style shock!"
The old guys on 5ch keep wishing for disaster and being dead wrong every single time, lol.
Idiot, I've been onto this the whole time.
You couldn't get back up in the meantime, so just give up 🤣🤣
Turkey's policy rate is 37%, and its currency is still garbage.
Switzerland's rate is 0%, yet the franc has been stronger than the dollar for years now.
Just admit Japan has become a declining nation already.
This isn't about interest rates — the yen simply has no value. None.
Nice one! You actually get it, don't you ＾q＾
US rates are staying elevated because of the Iran war that America started.
A currency's value is a nation's value.
Background and Key Points
The Bank of Japan decided on an additional rate hike at its September 18 policy meeting, but with two of its nine board members voting against it, markets grew more convinced that another hike isn’t coming anytime soon. Meanwhile, expectations that the US Federal Reserve will raise rates once more before year-end led traders to buy back dollars on the view that the US-Japan interest rate gap won’t easily narrow. The previous Friday, the BOJ had conducted a “rate check” — asking financial institutions about exchange rate levels — which isn’t intervention itself but a practical step normally taken ahead of one; markets still read it as a warning sign. In the thread, some questioned whether the rate gap alone explains things, pointing to the weak Turkish lira despite its high policy rate and the resilient Swiss franc despite a zero rate as evidence that “a currency’s value comes down to national strength.” The yen was still in the 140 range at points during the Ishiba administration, which is part of why shifts in its level get tied so readily to opinions of whoever is in power.
*This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5channel (News Express+) thread “[FX] Yen in low-157 range against the dollar… dollar buybacks on view that US-Japan rate gap won’t narrow“.
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