• EUR/JPY weakens to around 178.50 in Wednesday’s early European session.
• The cross keeps a bearish vibe below the 100-day SMA, but a temporary recovery cannot be ruled out amid an oversold RSI.
• The first upside barrier emerges at 179.00; the initial support level is seen at 177.17.

The EUR/JPY cross trades in negative territory near 178.50 during the early European trading hours on Wednesday. The Japanese Yen (JPY) edges higher against the Euro (EUR) as a slew of hawkish comments from the Bank of Japan (BoJ) policymakers have cemented views that the BoJ will raise interest rates this month.

BoJ board member Hajime Takata said last week that the central bank could take a more aggressive approach than expected. Takata further stated that a 25-basis-point hike “is not necessarily set in stone,” and that generally speaking, back-to-back rate hikes would be a possibility, too.

The BoJ is set to raise its policy rate to 1.25% from the current 1.0% at its September policy meeting, signaling an acceleration in the pace of rate hikes. This would raise the interest rate to its highest level in about 31 years and follow a rate hike in June.

Yen funding role questioned as rising JGB yields unsettle cross-border flows

Strategists at Rabobank argue that the “clear problem relates to the use of the JPY as a funding currency,” with markets now asking “whether there is room for the recent rapid unwind of JPY shorts to accelerate nearterm.” They add that an “appreciating JPY would bring fresh uncertainly over whether domestic Japanese investors would have less incentive to look for opportunity abroad,” a debate that has been sharpened by the rise in JGB yields, which has “already made this a topical theme.” Rabobank also notes that “the market has suspected that the US Treasury has been worried about large Japanese insurers potentially selling US government debt for JGBs for some time,” underscoring how shifts in Japan’s rate environment could reverberate through global fixed income positioning.

Technical Analysis: EUR/JPY keeps a bearish vibe amid oversold RSI

In the daily chart, EUR/JPY extends its corrective slide and holding decisively below key moving averages, which keeps the near-term bias firmly bearish. Price is lodged beneath the 20-day simple moving average (the middle Bollinger band) and the 100-day simple moving average, underscoring a market that remains capped by medium-term trend resistance. The Relative Strength Index (14) has dropped to around 22, deep in oversold territory, hinting that while downside pressure persists, the selloff could be at risk of fatigue if sellers fail to press decisively lower.

On the topside, initial resistance is seen at the lower Bollinger band near 179.00, with a recovery above this barrier needed to ease immediate selling pressure. Further up, the next hurdle is located at the 180.00 psychological level, en route to the Bollinger mid-line at 183.82 and the 100-day SMA at 184.70.

On the flip side, the November 10, 2025 low of 177.17 acts as an initial suppot level for the cross. Any follow-through selling below this level could pave the way to the November 4, 2025 low of 176.09, followed by the October 21 low, 2025 of 175.35.

(The technical analysis of this story was written with the help of an AI tool. Know more.)

Japanese Yen FAQs

The Japanese Yen (JPY) is one of the world’s most traded currencies. Its value is broadly determined by the performance of the Japanese economy, but more specifically by the Bank of Japan’s policy, the differential between Japanese and US bond yields, or risk sentiment among traders, among other factors.

One of the Bank of Japan’s mandates is currency control, so its moves are key for the Yen. The BoJ has directly intervened in currency markets sometimes, generally to lower the value of the Yen, although it refrains from doing it often due to political concerns of its main trading partners. The BoJ ultra-loose monetary policy between 2013 and 2024 caused the Yen to depreciate against its main currency peers due to an increasing policy divergence between the Bank of Japan and other main central banks. More recently, the gradually unwinding of this ultra-loose policy has given some support to the Yen.

Over the last decade, the BoJ’s stance of sticking to ultra-loose monetary policy has led to a widening policy divergence with other central banks, particularly with the US Federal Reserve. This supported a widening of the differential between the 10-year US and Japanese bonds, which favored the US Dollar against the Japanese Yen. The BoJ decision in 2024 to gradually abandon the ultra-loose policy, coupled with interest-rate cuts in other major central banks, is narrowing this differential.

The Japanese Yen is often seen as a safe-haven investment. This means that in times of market stress, investors are more likely to put their money in the Japanese currency due to its supposed reliability and stability. Turbulent times are likely to strengthen the Yen’s value against other currencies seen as more risky to invest in.

Lallalit Srijandorn is a Parisian at heart. She has lived in France since 2019 and now becomes a digital entrepreneur based in Paris and Bangkok.