Against the backdrop of the yen's weakening trend after the BOJ meeting, reports that President Trump had expressed concern about yen weakness circulated, and short-term profit-taking on rallies and position adjustments have continued.
In the previous week, USD/JPY moved from a low of ¥156.578 to a high of ¥159.035 as the yen weakened, before yen buying strengthened on the 25th amid position adjustments ahead of the weekend. The two catalysts were the BOJ's policy decision and President Trump's remarks cautioning against yen weakness.
The BOJ meeting resulted in a 0.25% rate hike, and BOJ Governor Ueda (植田) indicated that the policy rate would continue to be raised. At the same time, the presence of 2 dissenting votes at the meeting was viewed as potentially becoming an obstacle to further rate hikes.
On the 25th, remarks by Finance Minister Katayama (片山) led to reports that President Trump had expressed concern about yen weakness at the Japan-US summit. This prompted a broad reversal of yen-selling activity. The market shifted into conditions in which profit-taking on rallies was likely in the short term.