Editor's Choice: Intervention buys time, but won't fix yen's fundamental problem

Japanese Finance Minister Satsuki Katayama, left, and U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent coordinated to bolster the yen from historic lows. (Source photos by Nikkei) Hello from Tokyo. Japan and the United States have carried out a coordinated yen-buying intervention for the first time in 28 years, as confidence in the yen had fallen to historic lows, with the currency briefly approaching 164 to the dollar in late July, its weakest level since 1986.The previous coordinated yen-buying intervention took place during the Asian financial crisis, and the last time Japan and the U.S. acted together to sell yen was in the aftermath of the 2011 Tohoku earthquake. In other words, coordinated intervention has traditionally been reserved for times of crisis.It's hard to claim that the global econom