Even $1.2 Trillion of Reserves Isn't Enough to Scare Yen Bears
- FX reserves were smaller when Japan last intervened in 1998
- Economists still think intervention unlikely without US help
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Japan has more firepower in its foreign exchange reserves than it did the last time it intervened in markets to support its currency, though a unilateral move is seen as unlikely to succeed without US support.
Should it choose to act alone to defend an attack on the weakening yen, Tokyo will rely on reserves built up at a faster pace than growth in the local currency market since 1998, when it stepped in to bolster the yen around the tail-end of the Asian financial crisis.