Japan Press Weekly

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2024 August 21 - 27 [POLITICS]

JCP Dietmembers: BOJ is to blame for ultraweak yen

Japanese Communist Party Dietmembers Koike Akira (JCP secretary general) and Tamura Takaaki took part in a meeting on financial affairs held in both Houses of the Diet on August 23 during the Diet recess.

The meeting took place in response to the turbulence in the stock market and in the yen due to the Bank of Japan (BOJ)’s additional interest rate hike.

Koike at the meeting of the House of Councilors Committee on Financial Affairs said, “The problems associated with the ‘different dimension’ easy money policy are extremely serious,” as the abnormally-weak yen is causing people’s real wages to fall and import prices to soar and is hurting the business interests of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SME).

Koike criticized the BOJ’s large purchases of government bonds for potentially leading to damaging BOJ operations and jeopardizing the stability of the currency, and urged the government and the BOJ to admit that they had made a mistake in their monetary policy.

Finance Minister Suzuki Shun’ichi said in response, “I don’t think the BOJ is entirely responsible,” and argued that the government policy dubbed “Abenomics” has played a decisive role in the growth of the country’s economy.

Tamura at the House of Representatives Financial Affairs Committee meeting, regarding factors behind the super depreciation of the yen, said, “The difference in monetary policy between Japan and the United States has widened the interest rate gap, resulting in active yen-carry trades and accelerating the rise of dollar against the yen. The BOJ is responsible for this situation to a considerable extent.”

BOJ Governor Ueda Kazuo admitted to the fact that “in some aspects, the difference in interest rates at home and abroad due to the different vision of monetary policy between Japan and the U.S. is affecting the foreign exchange market.”