A Reuters photograph captured during a cabinet meeting at Camp David on July 31, 2026, revealed a handwritten note on U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s pad that read “To Do: Buy Japanese Yen (JPY) $5-10 bil,” sparking widespread speculation that Washington is preparing its first major direct intervention in foreign exchange markets to support Japan’s currency in over a decade. The scribbled note, clearly visible directly below Bessent’s conference name card, coincides with market reports that the U.S. Treasury placed major commercial banks on alert for potential market action and that the Federal Reserve Bank of New York executed yen purchases by selling euros through prime dealers. The potential joint intervention comes after Japanese monetary authorities conducted repeated solo market operations to defend the yen as it languished near four-decade lows against the dollar, driven by persistent interest rate differentials between the two nations. Financial markets reacted swiftly to the revealed document, driving a 0.8 percent late-afternoon surge in the yen’s exchange value to 157.6 per dollar as traders priced in a coordinated policy effort between Washington and Tokyo to curb speculative selling pressures. While the U.S. Treasury has not officially commented on the notepad photo, if confirmed, a multi-billion-dollar foreign exchange intervention would mark the first time the U.S. has directly purchased yen to stabilize Japan’s currency since the G7 coordinated response following the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake.
Leaked Notepad Note Signals Potential $10 Billion U.S. Intervention to Prop Up Weakened Japanese Yen
