Japan to cooperate with Bessent on forex, other issues

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese Finance Minister Katsunobu Kato and U.S. Treasury secretary Scott Bessent will cooperate on issues including forex, Kato said on Wednesday, following a video conference call between the two officials.

Speaking to reporters, Kato did not say whether tariffs were discussed during the talks on Wednesday afternoon Tokyo time.

"As ministers overseeing the overall economy and finance, Secretary Bessent and I confirmed we would consult closely in regards to forex," Kato said, adding it was Bessent's first video conference with another country after he assumed the role.

"In addition, at today's video conference, we confirmed that Japan and the United States would work more closely together on the various issues being discussed in bilateral and multilateral forums such as the G7 and G20," Kato said.

Bessent, 62, is shaping up to be a forceful advocate for U.S. President Donald Trump's economic agenda that centres on reducing taxes and imposing steep tariffs.

Last week, Japan's top currency diplomat Atsushi Mimura said that uncertainty over Trump's economic policies could sway markets in unpredictable ways, highlighting the difficulty of projecting whether the dollar's broad uptrend would continue.

"I also added that I was looking forward to working with (Bessent) as the most important counterpart," Kato said.

(Reporting by Satoshi Sugiyama and Makiko Yamazaki; Editing by Himani Sarkar and Barbara Lewis)

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