Japan not on U.S. currency watch list for first time since 2016

Washington – The U.S. Treasury Department said Friday it has removed Japan from a list of major trading partners that it monitors for potentially unfair foreign exchange practices for the first time since 2016, when the current format of designation began.

In its biannual report to Congress, the department placed seven economies on its “monitoring list” — China, Germany, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, Switzerland and Taiwan.

While Japan carried out foreign exchange interventions in September and October last year in an attempt to stem the yen’s rapid depreciation against the U.S. dollar, a Treasury official said in a press briefing there was no need to continue listing the country as one of the criteria employed is “the persistence of an intervention.”