Japan top FX diplomat Mimura says no comment on FX intervention and in close contact with relevant authorities on FX, adds no comment about what we plan to do in the future.

• Always ready to take appropriate actions and in close contact with US authorities and also in contact not only with the US.

Refusals to comment on intervention from Japan's senior currency official are the standard opening register of a jawboning sequence, and the escalation ladder in past episodes has been well rehearsed: non-committal phrasing gives way to 'excessive moves' language, then to warnings of decisive action, and only after that to actual operations. The emphasis on close contact with US and other authorities is the tell that matters here, since historically the threshold for unilateral yen-buying has been higher than for coordinated or at least tacitly tolerated action, and name-checking Washington signals the groundwork is being laid rather than an operation being imminent. The distinction worth drawing is between smoothing disorderly moves and defending a level: officials in this position have consistently framed action around volatility and one-sidedness, not a line in the sand, which is why the pace of the move has tended to matter more than the print in USD/JPY. Watch next for any shift in vocabulary from the Finance Minister or the trio of senior officials, and for the rate-check style queries to dealers that have preceded past operations. As commentary, the remarks lean supportive for the yen at the margin but carry no new information about timing.