Japan's Ministry of Finance is moving away from advance warnings of FX
intervention and toward sudden, targeted operations to punish speculative yen
shorts and raise the cost of betting against the currency, people familiar with
the matter said. Officials are avoiding public 'line-in-the-sand' exchange-rate
thresholds, increasing the risk of abrupt intervention prompted by the buildup
of speculative short positions rather than by breaches of publicly cited levels.
The MOF's approach, together with sustained hawkish rhetoric from the Bank of
Japan, suggests coordinated action to deter yen shorting.
