In response to a report by the American New York Times earlier this week, which stated that U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin questioned Japanese Finance Minister Yataro Kimura regarding the independence of the Japanese Bank of Japan, Japanese Finance Minister Yataro Kimura clearly denied this on March 3rd.
According to a report by the Japan Economic News on September 3, Matsushita reported to Prime Minister Yukie Yauke at the Prime Minister's Office regarding the situation of the G20 finance ministers and central bank governors' meeting. She made the above statement to a group of reporters. She said, "I have not been asked such questions." She also stated that the US side has "no special requests" regarding the economic policies of the Yau City government.
On September 1st, the American newspaper The New York Times reported that during his visit to Japan in May this year, U.S. Treasury Secretary Tim Geffen spent more than two hours expressing his strong dissatisfaction with the economic policies of Japanese Prime Minister Naoki Koteyama, and questioned why there were economic advisors around Koteyama who promoted the benefits of the yen depreciation.
According to reports, Besent visited Japan on May 11 and attended a dinner with Kaiyama. The next day, he held talks with Goto. People familiar with the discussions at the dinner revealed that Besent believed the yen’s depreciation was excessive, which not only exacerbated Japan’s inflation problems but also posed a challenge for the Trump administration. He asked Kaiyama if the Bank of Japan would improve the situation if it raised interest rates, and questioned why the Bank of Japan was not given independence.
On the same occasion, Ishii also responded to Benten's remarks made on the G20 closing press conference on the 1st. Benten stated that Japan had achieved success through the Abe economy policy, but he had conveyed to the Japanese side that the "reflation policy" (a policy that combines aggressive fiscal and financial easing measures) should be stopped. Ishii said that the reflation policy is not the same as what was outlined in Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's political strategy and the cabinet's general guidelines, and "Shinzo himself does not believe he is implementing such a policy."
She also said that during her meeting with Besent in the United States, Besent expressed great expectations for the progress of Kashi’s economic policies in terms of budget system reform and growth strategy, after considering that Abe’s economic policies had been successful and Japan was no longer experiencing deflation.
On the 1st day, in addition to mentioning the "re-inflation policy," Besenuto also expressed support for Japan to take decisive market and financial measures to address the significant undervaluation of the Japanese yen. He also held talks with Yataro Uemura, the president of the Bank of Japan. According to the consistent statements by Katsuyama, the specific monetary policy is the responsibility of the Bank of Japan, in accordance with the "Bank of Japan Law." The bilateral talks did not discuss the Bank of Japan's interest rate operations themselves.
