Japan stepped into the foreign exchange market on July 11 and 12 this year, spending a total of ¥5.53 trillion (about $36 billion) to prop up the yen.

This is after it had weakened to around a 38-year low against the U.S. dollar, the Finance Ministry said on Friday.

According to the ministry’s quarterly data, Japanese authorities spent ¥3.17 trillion on July 11 and 2.37 trillion on July 12 in the dollar-selling and yen-buying operation.

This is bringing the total spent on currency interventions this year to ¥15.32 trillion.

The Finance Ministry had previously revealed it spent the amount during the period from June 27 through July 29 without releasing daily breakdowns.

The data confirmed the belief that Japanese authorities had intervened in the currency market.

Over those two days in July, the yen rebounded to as high as 157.30 against the U.S. dollar from as low as 161.76.

On April 29, when the U.S. currency briefly climbed to ¥160.24, its highest level in 34 years, the Japanese government and the Bank of Japan spent some ¥9.8 trillion at the end of April.

Early May slowed the yen’s rapid fall, official data showed. ($1 dollar equals ¥152.96 Japanese).

(NAN)