BoJ versus MoF: Who will win Japan's monetary tug-of-war?

Interest rate decision to follow

The weakness of the Japanese yen is becoming disorderly to the extent it is starting to worry the Ministry of Finance (MoF), prompting it not only to ask the Bank of Japan to intervene directly in the currency market but also putting pressure on the central bank to expedite and increase the pace of interest rate hikes.

The only problem is that a stronger JPY and higher interest rates directly impede the BoJ's efforts to break for good from Japan's decade-long disinflationary vicious cycle; price stability is, after all, the BoJ's primary mandate. Aviva Investors' Wakefield: Is Japan's stock-market sugar rush sustainable? For investors' positioning in the Japanese markets, it is essential to understand how this "conflict" between the MoF and the BoJ eventually plays out. Yen is cheap by any measure The yen looks cheap based on any fundamental metrics. For example, according to the Real Effective...