USD/JPY is trading 0.17% higher near 156.30 during Tuesday’s Asian trading session. The pair is rising as the Japanese yen (JPY) comes under slight pressure, even as the Bank of Japan’s (BoJ) opinion summary for its December meeting, released on Monday, showed that policymakers favor staying on the monetary tightening path in 2026.
Japanese yen price today
The table below shows how much the Japanese Yen (JPY) has changed against the major currencies listed today. The Japanese yen was the weakest against the Australian dollar.
| US dollars | euro | GBP | JPY | Canadian | Australian dollar | New Zealand dollar | Swiss franc | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US dollars | -0.02% | 0.01% | 0.16% | -0.06% | -0.18% | -0.04% | -0.07% | |
| euro | 0.02% | 0.03% | 0.18% | -0.04% | -0.16% | -0.02% | -0.05% | |
| GBP | -0.01% | -0.03% | 0.17% | -0.05% | -0.19% | -0.05% | -0.09% | |
| JPY | -0.16% | -0.18% | -0.17% | -0.21% | -0.33% | -0.20% | -0.18% | |
| Canadian | 0.06% | 0.04% | 0.05% | 0.21% | -0.11% | 0.02% | -0.02% | |
| Australian dollar | 0.18% | 0.16% | 0.19% | 0.33% | 0.11% | 0.14% | 0.10% | |
| New Zealand dollar | 0.04% | 0.02% | 0.05% | 0.20% | -0.02% | -0.14% | -0.04% | |
| Swiss franc | 0.07% | 0.05% | 0.09% | 0.18% | 0.02% | -0.10% | 0.04% |
The heat map shows the percentage changes in major currencies versus each other. The base currency is chosen from the left column, while the counter currency is chosen from the top row. For example, if you select 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 the Japanese Yen (base)/US Dollar (quote).
“There is still a long way to reach levels considered neutral,” a Bank of Japan member said, adding that the central bank should raise interest rates “taking time frames of a few months into account at the moment,” Reuters reported. A few members of the Bank of Japan also stated that further interest rate hikes are necessary to strengthen the yen.
At the policy meeting, the Bank of Japan raised interest rates by 25 basis points to 0.75%, as expected.
Last week, Bank of Japan Governor Kazuo Ueda also stressed the need for additional rate hikes, noting that labor market conditions have tightened as companies’ behavior in setting wages and prices has changed, and price pressures appear to have returned sustainably to the 2% target.
Meanwhile, the US Dollar Index (DXY), which tracks the value of the dollar against six major currencies, is trading flat around 98.00 at press time, ahead of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) minutes of its December meeting being released late in the New York session.
At the policy meeting, the Fed cut interest rates by 25 basis points to 3.50%-3.75% and indicated that there would be only one cut in 2026. In 2025, the Fed made three interest rate cuts of a quarter to one percent.
Bank of Japan Frequently Asked Questions
The Bank of Japan (BoJ) is Japan’s central bank, which sets the country’s monetary policy. Its mission is to issue banknotes and implement currency and monetary controls to ensure price stability, which means an inflation target of around 2%.
The Bank of Japan embarked on an ultra-loose monetary policy in 2013 in order to stimulate the economy and fuel inflation amid a low-inflation environment. The bank’s policy relies on quantitative and qualitative easing (QQE), or printing banknotes to purchase assets such as government bonds or corporate bonds to provide liquidity. In 2016, the bank doubled down on its strategy and eased its policy by first offering negative interest rates and then directly controlling the yields of its 10-year government bonds. In March 2024, the Bank of Japan raised interest rates, effectively reversing its ultra-loose monetary policy stance.
The massive incentives offered by the bank caused the value of the Japanese yen to decline against major currencies. This process was exacerbated in 2022 and 2023 by the growing policy divergence between the Bank of Japan and other major central banks, which chose to increase interest rates sharply to combat decades-long high levels of inflation. The Bank of Japan’s policy led to a widening of the spread with other currencies, which led to a decline in the value of the Japanese yen. This trend was partially reversed in 2024, when the Bank of Japan decided to abandon its overly accommodating policy stance.
The weakness of the Japanese yen and rising global energy prices led to an increase in Japanese inflation, which exceeded the Bank of Japan’s target of 2%. The prospect of higher salaries in the country – a key element fueling inflation – also contributed to the move.
