Japan’s Akazawa: BoJ's rate hike consideration and government's aim to exit deflation are not contradictory

Dhwani Mehta FXStreet

Japan's Economy Minister Ryosei Akazawa noted on Tuesday that ”the Bank of Japan’s (BoJ) consideration of a rate hike and the government's (govt) aim to exit deflation are not contradictory.”

“The BoJ and govt are cooperating well,” he added.

Market reaction

USD/JPY is holding modest gains just above 157.50 following these above comments.

Japanese Yen PRICE Today

The table below shows the percentage change of Japanese Yen (JPY) against listed major currencies today. Japanese Yen was the weakest against the New Zealand Dollar.

	USD	EUR	GBP	JPY	CAD	AUD	NZD	CHF
USD		-0.34%	-0.33%	-0.05%	-0.16%	-0.48%	-0.79%	-0.25%
EUR	0.34%		0.01%	0.29%	0.19%	-0.14%	-0.44%	0.10%
GBP	0.33%	-0.01%		0.29%	0.17%	-0.15%	-0.46%	0.09%
JPY	0.05%	-0.29%	-0.29%		-0.11%	-0.42%	-0.74%	-0.19%
CAD	0.16%	-0.19%	-0.17%	0.11%		-0.32%	-0.63%	-0.08%
AUD	0.48%	0.14%	0.15%	0.42%	0.32%		-0.30%	0.24%
NZD	0.79%	0.44%	0.46%	0.74%	0.63%	0.30%		0.55%
CHF	0.25%	-0.10%	-0.09%	0.19%	0.08%	-0.24%	-0.55%

The heat map shows percentage changes of major currencies against each other. The base currency is picked from the left column, while the quote currency is picked from the top row. For example, if you pick the Japanese Yen from the left column and move along the horizontal line to the US Dollar, the percentage change displayed in the box will represent JPY (base)/USD (quote).

Author

Dhwani Mehta

FXStreet

Residing in Mumbai (India), Dhwani is a Senior Analyst and Manager of the Asian session at FXStreet. She has over 10 years of experience in analyzing and covering the global financial markets, with specialization in Forex and commodities markets.

AUD/USD regains mild traction, falters near 0.7150

AUD/USD gathers some steam and manages to flirt with the 0.7150 level on Thursday. However, the pair has retraced some of Wednesday’s significant pullback due to renewed selling pressure on the Greenback and a slight improvement in risk sentiment following hopes of a deal in the Middle East. Wrapping up the Australian docket, the RBA’s Hauser will speak early on Friday.

USD/JPY trades below 160.00 intervention threshold; bullish bias intact

The USD/JPY pair attracts some sellers during the Asian session amid fears that authorities will step in again to prop up the Japanese Yen. Furthermore, the Israel-Lebanon truce prompts some profit-taking around the US Dollar and exerts downward pressure on the currency pair.

Gold puts its 200-day SMA to the test near $4,420

Gold keeps the bullish stance in place in the latter part of Thursday’s session, although a convincing break above the key $4,500 mark per troy ounce still remains elusive. The precious metal’s advance comes amid the resurgence of some selling interest around the Greenback, improving risk sentiment, and declining US Treasury yields across the board.

XRP plummets as ETF outflows, geopolitical tensions reinforce bearish outlook

Ripple (XRP) edges lower, trading around $1.15 at the time of writing on Thursday, its lowest price since February 6. The cross-border money remittance token is extending the sell-off for the fifth consecutive day, reflecting persistent headwinds from ongoing geopolitical tensions and investor uncertainty.

Nonfarm payrolls: Testing the limits of Fed policy patience

The upcoming nonfarm payrolls report for May will provide the final update on the US labor market before Kevin Warsh attends his first policy meeting as the new Fed Chair later this month.

Recession on paper: What really moves the Canadian Loonie now?

Statistics Canada handed the headline writers a gift and the analysts a headache. Real GDP shrank 0.1% on an annualized basis in the first quarter, and with the fourth quarter of 2025 revised down to a 1.0% contraction, that is two negative quarters in a row, the textbook definition of a technical recession and Canada's first since the pandemic.