The Japanese yen fell in Asian trade on Friday against a basket of major rivals, extending losses against the dollar for the fourth straight session and plumbing three-week lows, and about to mark the second weekly loss in a row.

The losses are due to the Bank of Japans policy meeting, which was more cautious than expected, followed by somewhat bearish remarks by BOJ Governor Kazuo Ueda, hurting the odds of a rate hike in June.

The Price

The USD/JPY pair rose 0.4% today to 145.92, the highest since April 10, with a session-low at 145.14.

The yen lost 1.6% on Thursday against the greenback, the largest such loss in 2025 following the BOJs policy meeting.

Weekly Trades

The yen is down 1.6% so far against the dollar this week, on track for the second weekly loss in a row.

The BOJ

The Bank of Japan voted today to hold interest rates unchanged at 0.5%, the highest since 2008 as expected.

The vote was unanimous in favor of holding interest rates, as policymakers prefer to take more time to assess the impact of US tariffs on the export-heavy economy.

Policy Statement

The BOJ said in its policy statement that itll continue hiking interest rates if the economic and inflationary predictions were carried out.

It said itll continue to monitor economic developments and price without any preset projections, with a heavy reliance on data.

Economic Forecasts

The Bank of Japan reduced its 2025 growth forecasts from 1.1% to 0.5%, and the 2026 growth forecast from 1% to 0.7%.

It also reduced 2025 inflation forecasts to 2.2% from 2.4%, and the 2026 forecasts to 1.8% from 2.1%.

Japanese Rates

The current odds of a BOJ interest rate hike in June fell below 25%.

Now traders await more crucial Japanese inflation, wages, and unemployment data in upcoming days to gather more clues.

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