Satsuki Katayama, the Woman at the Center of Japans Currency Fight

On a Monday evening in May, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent sat down for dinner at a ritzy Japanese restaurant tucked inside a 400-year-old garden in central Tokyo.Across the table was Satsuki Katayama, Japan’s sharp-tongued finance minister, who made history last year as the first woman to hold the post.Mr.

Bessent was scheduled to meet Japan’s prime minister, Sanae Takaichi, the next day.But first, he had grievances to air.Over two hours, Mr.

Bessent, who closely followed the country’s economy as a hedge fund manager, unloaded his frustration with the economic direction set by the Japanese leader.Ms.

Takaichi had expanded government spending while leaning on the Bank of Japan to keep interest rates low.The strategy was driving capital out of Tokyo, sending Japan’s currency to four-decade lows.In Mr.

Bessent’s view, the yen had slumped too far.It was making inflation in Japan worse, but it was also a problem for his boss, President Trump, who has long argued that Japan’s weak yen hurts American exporters.The situation could be remedied, Mr.

Bessent said, if Japan’s central bank raised interest rates.Why, he pressed, was the Bank of Japan not being given autonomy? Why were some economic advisers around Ms.

Takaichi preaching the benefits of a weak yen?In late July, Ms.Katayama and Mr.

Bessent took the extraordinary step of coordinating a joint intervention in currency markets.The move temporarily strengthened the yen, which had fallen as low as 164 to the dollar.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.

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