Japan Monitoring Financial Market Moves With Urgency

Japan is closely monitoring financial markets and economic developments with a sense of urgency, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi said following global market turmoil sparked by concerns over the impact of higher U.S. tariffs, Kyodo News reported.

Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba’s administration will do “all it can” in terms of economic and financial policy management.

Hayashi, the government’s top spokesman, said at a regular press conference that Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba’s administration will do “all it can” in terms of economic and financial policy management.

Separately, Finance Minister Katsunobu Kato—who also oversees the Financial Services Agency (FSA)—urged investors to respond calmly to the recent sell-off in the Tokyo stock market.

U.S. stocks have recently plunged amid mounting fears that former President Donald Trump's tariffs will harm global trade, particularly by choking exports to the world’s largest economy, posing a serious threat to the global economic outlook.

In a rare Sunday gathering at the prime minister’s official residence, Kato and Ishiba, along with other Cabinet members, discussed potential measures to prevent prolonged market volatility from persisting and hurting the real economy.