Analysis:Japan faces day of policy reckoning as Bessent calls time on big stimulus

ASHEVILLE, North Carolina, Aug 31 : When the U.S. joined Japan's efforts to shore up the yen, it wasn't for nothing. This week, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent spelt out the terms: get busy on interest rate hikes and end outdated ideas about big economic stimulus.A month after a rare joint U.S.-Japan intervention to prop up the yen, Bessent showed little appetite for another market foray by telling Reuters recent yen moves were not disorderly.Instead, he expressed hope Bank of Japan Governor Kazuo Ueda would "do the right thing" on monetary policy to combat a weak yen.While the BOJ was already widely expected to lift rates in September as inflation pressures grew, Bessent's comments effectively lock the bank into doing so and put pressure on it to step up hikes going forward. "The Ju