The writer is head of Japan FX Strategy at JPMorgan
The Japanese yen has been an unexpected casualty of a global lurch towards higher interest rates. The currency is down about 15 per cent against the dollar this year, and relative to a broader basket of currencies, the yen is tracking lows not seen since the 1970s.
Currency traders in Tokyo are quick to highlight the proximate cause for the yen’s slide as a simple story of monetary policy divergence: high US yields, low Japan yields. While the US Federal Reserve has embarked on what looks set to be its fastest pace of monetary policy tightening since the 1990s, the Bank of Japan has been resolute in its defence of sustained policy easing.