Japan's currency chief warns again as yen slides toward 160 per dollar

Japan's vice finance minister for international affairs, Atsushi Mimura, took the microphone Thursday and pointed straight back at the summer. He told reporters he believes recent currency moves have been excessively rapid, while declining to comment on the current exchange-rate level itself.

The timing is not subtle. The dollar rose to 159.94 against the yen early Thursday, its strongest in more than two months, leaving the 160 mark within touching distance — the same zone that preceded Japan's yen-buying interventions in late July through early August, including one carried out jointly with the US.

Mimura made that history explicit: it's still too early to forget what happened this summer, according to his remarks to reporters in Tokyo.

Behind the yen's slide sits the interest-rate gap. Traders are leaning toward the Federal Reserve raising rates, buoyed by hot US inflation data and hawkish comments from policymakers, which has pushed the dollar higher across the board.