U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessant, who is visiting Japan, met with Japanese Finance Minister Satsuki Katayama on the 12th and confirmed their intention to cooperate on issues such as the yen/dollar exchange rate.

Satsuki Katayama, Japanese Finance Minister [EPA=Yonhap News File Photo]

According to local media, Finance Minister Katayama held a press conference with Secretary Bessant after their meeting and stated regarding the yen/dollar exchange rate, "We confirmed that we will continue to cooperate firmly, and it was fully understood."

In response, the Nikkei Shimbun interpreted this as the U.S. government tacitly approving Japan's intervention in the foreign exchange market to counter the weak yen.

Finance Minister Katayama also said, "We are cooperating well between the two countries regarding current exchange rate trends."

He also announced that they discussed promoting international cooperation to strengthen supply chains for critical minerals.

Secretary Bessant also showed a stance of checking China's actions, stating that China's export restrictions on critical minerals are "unfair, and the U.S. will continue to assert this," according to Finance Minister Katayama.

Both sides also exchanged views on concerns about the security of financial systems related to artificial intelligence (AI), which have been raised with the recent launch of Anthropic's latest AI model, 'Claude 3'.

Regarding AI development trends, Finance Minister Katayama explained, "It is a direction in which the U.S. government shares information and we move together."