Rintaro Tamaki was Vice-Minister of Finance for International Affairs at the Ministry of Finance from 2009 – 2011. This meant he had responsibility for yen intervention.
- While in office, Tamaki intervened in the market after the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami devastated much of northeastern Japan and triggered the Fukushima nuclear crisis.
- “We intervened in the market to respond to rapid yen rises in order to regain a sense of stability,” Tamaki said. “It was nothing but a smoothing operation. We cannot think of intervention as a means to change currency levels.”
He spoke on Wednesday saying that the current yen’s weakness might be caused not only by interest rate differentials between Japan and the United States but also by structural factors such as a worsening fiscal position.
He said that under such circumstances, any dollar-selling, yen-buying currency intervention by authorities may have psychological impacts but it would not change underlying structural issues. Nor would it help turn around the market to support the yen. But operations to smooth the yen’s fall may be acceptable.
Info via Japan media.