Japan May Have Spent Record Amount in Intervention to Stem Yen

Japan may have spent a record amount intervening to stem the yen’s gains on Aug. 4, based on projection of deposits held by financial institutions at the Bank of Japan.

The central bank estimated that deposits climbed to a total 32.3 trillion yen ($412 billion), it said in a statement released yesterday in Tokyo. The figure suggests that the government sold about 4.5 trillion yen, a record, to prevent the currency from strengthening to a post-World War II high, according to Yuichi Takahashi, market economist at Totan Research Co., a money-market brokerage in Tokyo.