The yen carry trade is a strategy where investors borrow Japanese yen at low interest rates, convert it into another currency, and invest in higher-yielding as…
Japan's stock and property bubble, which peaked in December 1989, collapsed through 1990, dragging the country into decades of weak growth, falling asset prices and defl…
In February 1999, the Bank of Japan cut its policy rate effectively to zero — the first major central bank to do so in the modern era. This is the moment the yen became…
As the global financial crisis forced deleveraging worldwide, investors rushed to buy back yen to repay carry-trade loans, sending the yen sharply higher even as nearly…
New BOJ Governor Haruhiko Kuroda launched large-scale quantitative and qualitative easing under PM Shinzo Abe's economic program, deliberately weakening the yen to fight…
The BOJ cut its policy rate to -0.1%, announced 29 January and effective 16 February 2016, becoming the world's last major central bank to adopt negative rates. This cem…
The U.S. Federal Reserve raised rates aggressively to fight inflation, while the BOJ kept policy far looser for far longer, widening the rate gap between the two economi…
The BOJ ended negative rates on 19 March 2024, then hiked to 0.25% on 31 July. Days later, a weak U.S. jobs report raised Fed rate-cut bets, and the yen surged. Leverage…
The BOJ raised rates twice in 2025 — to 0.50% on 24 January and to 0.75% on 19 December, the highest level since 1995 — continuing a steady normalization path that kept…
On 16 June 2026, the BOJ raised its policy rate to 1.00%, citing inflation pressure from yen weakness and elevated energy costs. It was the BOJ's fourth hike since exiti…
On 8 September 2026, the yen rose to roughly ¥152.9-153.5 per dollar, its strongest since February, as traders priced in a faster pace of BOJ tightening, possible Japane…
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