Japanese PM Shigeru Ishiba and US President Donald Trump at the White House on Feb 7. They did not address each other by their first names, using “President Trump” and “Prime Minister Ishiba”. -- PHOTO: AFP
TOKYO (Reuters): Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said he agreed with US President Donald Trump that the two countries will leave foreign exchange-rate matters in the hands of their finance ministers.
"As was the case during the first Trump administration, we decided to continue close discussions between the Japanese and US finance leaders, who are the experts," Ishiba told a news conference after his meeting with Trump on Friday, on currency rate matters.
In a video conference call last month, Japanese Finance Minister Katsunobu Kato and US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent agreed to cooperate on issues including currency rates.
Some analysts have said prior to the summit that Trump could express displeasure over the weak yen as a factor that boosts the dollar and makes US exports less competitive abroad.
Japanese policymakers have been sensitive to the risk of Trump making explicit comments about the yen and causing market volatility that could hurt its fragile economic recovery.
(Reporting by Kentaro Sugiyama in Tokyo, writing by Leika Kihara, editing by Chris Reese) - Reuters
