Japan warns on “sharp, one-sided” yen moves as Kihara signals heightened urgency

Japan Chief Cabinet Secretary Kihara:

• Watching market moves, including bond market, closely
• Recent FX moves are sharp, one-sided
• FX market needs to move stably reflecting fundamentals
• Concerned about FX moves
• Closely watching excessive, disorderly moves in FX market including speculative moves
• Watching fx market move with high sense of urgency

This is all just blah, blah, blah now.

USD/JPY is sitting basically at the day’s high around 157.46.

Kihara’s remarks raise the verbal-intervention temperature, he has chosen high impact words. But … if this does slow yen selling it’ll be marginal. Markets will look for coordinated Ministry of Finance–BOJ signals before pricing a higher risk of actual intervention.