The US and Japan have jointly intervened to purchase the Japanese yen for the first time in nearly 30 years, with a memo from the US Treasury Secretary reportedly revealing plans to buy between $5 billion and $10 billion.

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s to-do list, visible on a notepad during President Donald Trump’s cabinet meeting at Camp David on Friday local time, was spotted with an entry reading: “Buy $50-$100 billion in yen”. The photo was taken during the media-accessible segment of the meeting at 11:33 a.m. ET (23:33 Beijing time). Bessent’s nameplate was positioned directly above the notepad, making the entry clearly legible. A US Treasury Department spokesperson declined to comment on the notepad content or whether any intervention measures were taken on Friday. Separately, the Financial Times reported that the US Treasury intervened in the yen exchange rate on Friday local time, marking the first joint direct purchase operation by the US and Japan to support the yen in nearly 30 years. Three sources familiar with the matter disclosed that the Federal Reserve Bank of New York executed an unusual operation on behalf of the Treasury: selling euros to buy yen. Two of the sources stated the transaction was completed through Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley. The US Treasury had informed multiple Wall Street banks prior to the action that it was considering yen intervention. The last time the US Treasury intervened to support the yen dates back to 2011, though that operation involved selling yen instead.