Japan and the United States are coordinating their efforts to slow the yen decline, which has reached historically low levels around 160-162 yen per dollar, a threshold not seen in roughly forty years. Japanese Finance Minister Satsuki Katayama met with US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on May 12, 2026, to discuss this cooperation, as Tokyo has already spent approximately 63.5 billion dollars on past currency interventions. In response to this monetary weakness, Japanese corporations are turning heavily toward cryptocurrencies: SBI VC Trade reported that over two million accounts had been opened by businesses seeking to diversify their reserves with Bitcoin and XRP as of early July 2026. The yen carry trade, a strategy of borrowing cheaply in yen to invest in higher-yielding assets, remains vulnerable to a sudden reversal of the Japanese currency, as occurred in July-August 2024.
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