Reuters are referring to Japanese media reports that PM Kan is to be challenged by party powerbroker Ozawa.
This would seem to put in doubt any collaboration between the PM and the BoJ Governor regarding FX intervention.
12 Responses to “Japan PM to be challenged in leadership vote”
Unfortunately, unless I start getting paid overtime for doing the...
HIGH RISK WARNING: Foreign exchange trading carries a high level of risk that may not be suitable for all investors. Leverage creates additional risk and loss exposure. Before you decide to trade foreign exchange, carefully consider your investment objectives, experience level, and risk tolerance. You could lose some or all of your initial investment; do not invest money that you cannot afford to lose. Educate yourself on the risks associated with foreign exchange trading, and seek advice from an independent financial or tax advisor if you have any questions.
ADVISORY WARNING: FOREXLIVE provides references and links to selected blogs and other sources of economic and market information as an educational service to its clients and prospects and does not endorse the opinions or recommendations of the blogs or other sources of information. Clients and prospects are advised to carefully consider the opinions and analysis offered in the blogs or other information sources in the context of the client or prospect's individual analysis and decision making. None of the blogs or other sources of information is to be considered as constituting a track record. Past performance is no guarantee of future results and FOREXLIVE specifically advises clients and prospects to carefully review all claims and representations made by advisors, bloggers, money managers and system vendors before investing any funds or opening an account with any Forex dealer. Any news, opinions, research, data, or other information contained within this website is provided as general market commentary and does not constitute investment or trading advice. FOREXLIVE expressly disclaims any liability for any lost principal or profits without limitation which may arise directly or indirectly from the use of or reliance on such information. As with all such advisory services, past results are never a guarantee of future results.
AUTOREFRESH 
on the other hand if Kan fails to win, it will mean more political uncertainty in a country where Debt/GNP ratio us among highest and deflation persists. Not a good description of a country which has a currency with safe heaven currency
If this is true then we are set for a big decline — the only reason the S&P went up was the massive buying of USDJPY…..should be interesting !!!
Japanese media have been talking about this for a while. As I understand this is just a regular party leadership vote. I don’t think Ozawa will have the backing, while he does have a lot of support he has a fundind scandal hanging over him still and for this reason the Japanese voters will probably be thoroughly disgusted if he were to become PM.
Thanks fxgai
Loouise, why do you think S&P followed usdjpy and not the opposite? I personally think that in general the mentioned relationship is like a tandem, like a dance. Each dancer following the other.
fxgai: It’s a bit more than “a regular party leadership vote”. This is for the presidency of the DPJ, and the winner becomes PM — period. The public is disgusted with *all* of them. The DPJ is in trouble because it ran on a “manifesto” that it is finding impossible to live up to. Of course, you can blame naive Japanese voters for not understanding that the manifesto was itself naive in the first place. Sadly, Japanese politics reflects the situation with the strong yen: nobody knows what to do about it because poor fiscal policies over the years have finally left many options untenable going forward. The whole post-war system has collapsed, and while a decade or more was wasted hoping that Humpty could be put back together again, now everyone knows that isn’t going to happen. So the question is where to now, and nobody has a good answer because the options are so limited.
Oh, and as for support: Don’t forget that Ozawa is the bag man. As in money bag. Hatoyama has already thrown his (perhaps limited) support behind him. This guy is a back room wheeler-dealer than could make a Chicago alderman blush. I suspect he will win, and that he wouldn’t be running if he didn’t think so, too. He’s not a heartwarming guy, for sure. But he’s also no one to underestimate.
“that” could make a Chicago alderman blush — sorry
Last word about Ozawa, and how much he might want this: Japanese PMs are immune from prosecution. Period.
Daniel – easy – USDJPY charts hit support while the S&P charts were still hinting downtrend this morning…….
Looise thanks…well, yeah, easy to explain the first second, definetely USDJPY was the fire starter at 84….but then? how can you tell that S&P didn’t take the leading role in the tandem? (actually without S&P taking the driving role, I think the scenario could have been from 84 to 84.3 but then back below 84)
I mean…common, if the JPY intervention will happen it doesn’t mean S&P will skyrocket