By Makiko Yamazaki and Leika Kihara TOKYO, Aug 3 (Reuters) - Japan and the United States conducted coordinated yen-buying intervention and will not hesitate to take further action, Japan's finance ministry said on Monday,

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent made $1 billion betting against the yen as the top investor for George Soros more than a decade ago. Now, he is using the might of the U.S. economy to prop up the Japanese currency.

The U.S. Treasury Department and Federal Reserve have joined forces with their Japanese counterparts to stage a historic joint intervention to boost the Japanese yen, according to Japan’s Ministry of Finance,

By Leika Kihara, Makiko Yamazaki and Tamiyuki Kihara TOKYO, Aug 3 (Reuters) - A joint U.S.-Japanese effort to fight off speculative bets against a battered yen last week followed months of preparation by the two nations and a rare and public alignment of interests in Washington and Tokyo over exchange rates.

The U.S. joined Japan in buying yen, helping reverse the currency's slide as authorities signaled that further coordinated action remained possible.

U.S. and Japanese officials confirmed that the Treasury Department had moved last week to prop up the currency, which had been trading near four-decade lows.

Why did the Treasury sell euros to buy yen and come to the rescue of the flailing Japanese currency?

A plunging Japanese yen has Washington taking one of its rarest financial actions in years. After the US joined Japan in a rare effort to buy Japanese yen and support the struggling currency, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said (1) the Trump administration would do “whatever it takes” to keep supporting the yen.