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The United States has partnered with Japan to buy up Japanese yen and stop the currency from falling any further.

Some shit you should know before you dig in: If you’re unaware, Japan owns nearly $3 trillion in American assets, including over $1.1 trillion in US government bonds (debt), more than any other country on earth. Those bonds are how America borrows money to run itself, and propping up a falling currency takes a shitload of cash. If Japan keeps footing that bill, it will eventually have to sell some of those US bonds to raise cash, which pushes bond prices down and forces the US to pay higher interest to keep borrowing. That’s a big problem for us, especially now that we’re over $39.8 trillion in debt.

What’s going on now: The announcement came from Japan’s Finance Ministry and was confirmed by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, following a joint operation Friday in which the US Treasury sold euros held in its own reserves and moved that money into yen alongside Tokyo. Japan’s central bank data suggests Tokyo spent as much as $36.58 billion of its own money that day, on top of the $58.97 billion it spent without US help in New York markets a day earlier.

This is the first time the two countries have coordinated on the yen since 2011, and the first time the US has stepped in to support it since 1998.

Some background on why this was necessary: The yen hit about 164 to the dollar last month, its weakest level in roughly 40 years. Money goes where it earns the most, and American banks pay around 3.5% while Japanese banks pay 1%, up from basically nothing before June. So investors pull cash out of Japan, sell yen to buy dollars, and the yen keeps dropping. That is brutal for anyone living in Japan, which imports most of its fuel and much of its food, and all of it is getting more expensive.

Prices are climbing, and Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s approval ratings are sinking with them. Tokyo tried fixing it in April and May, and the yen bounced for a moment each time before sliding again.

Both governments have signaled this could happen again, with Finance Minister Satsuki Katayama saying, “We will not hesitate conducting further coordinated intervention.” Bessent echoed that on X, saying Washington “strongly support[s] Japan’s decisive market and monetary steps to correct the substantial undervaluation of the yen.”