Japan’s carmakers are assuming that the yen will trade near current levels against the U.S. dollar in the coming months, based on forecasts they issued just as the U.S. stepped in to help the Japanese currency from weakening further.
Toyota, Nissan and others based their profit and sales outlooks on the view that the currency will remain at ¥150 to ¥160 against the dollar for the fiscal year through March 2027, according to their latest round of results. The yen is currently trading within that range, at around ¥157.7 as of Thursday.
Over the past week, the governments of the U.S. and Japan took joint action in the currency markets for the first time since 2011, seeking to reverse a slide that they said was threatening to drive up inflation and import prices in the island nation. While a stronger yen would help alleviate that, it would also cut into carmakers’ earnings, which are driven by sales abroad that translate into higher profits when brought back home.