Japan may have sold overseas securities to fund foreign exchange intervention

Golden Ten Data reported on June 5 that Japan's holdings of overseas securities decreased significantly in May, indicating that the Japanese government may have used overseas assets, including US Treasury bonds, to fund its record-breaking currency market intervention over the past month. According to foreign exchange reserve data released by the Japanese Ministry of Finance on Friday, Japan's holdings of overseas securities decreased by $75.6 billion compared to April. As of the end of May, Japan's total foreign exchange reserves fell to $1.09 trillion. Foreign currency deposits, another potential source of intervention funds, basically remained unchanged at around $162 billion. Previously, it was confirmed that during the month ending May 28, Japan's intervention in the foreign exchange market reached a record high of 11.73 trillion yen (approximately $73.4 billion).