Japan reiterated that yen undervaluation is a problem as the currency traded around 157.47 per dollar on September 29, despite recent Bank of Japan rate increases and repeated yen-buying operations this year. Finance Minister Satsuki Katayama said Tokyo will maintain close communication with the United States to support orderly foreign-exchange markets after a September 25 call with U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, when both sides reaffirmed concern about the currency's weakness. Katayama also attributed rising global sovereign yields partly to inflation, fiscal spending and heavy corporate-bond issuance by technology companies financing AI infrastructure. She said Japan's 10-year government bond yield, near 3%, had not risen unusually sharply compared with yields in the U.S. and Europe.