Japan's finance minister said U.S. President Donald Trump expressed concern about the yen during his meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi in New York earlier this week, sending the currency higher.

"At the recent Japan-U.S. summit, President Trump expressed concern about the weak yen," Finance Minister Satsuki Katayama said Friday at a briefing after a cabinet meeting in Tokyo.

Katayama told reporters that in response, Takaichi said the yen being undervalued was indeed a problem, adding that she disclosed some details of the leaders' conversation only after consulting with the Prime Minister's Office — underscoring the importance and sensitivity of the matter.

The finance minister said she would continue to coordinate with U.S. Treasury Secretary Bessent.

Katayama's remarks came as Japan's growth strategy minister, Minoru Kiuchi, told reporters that Japan no longer needs reflationary policies such as aggressive monetary easing and flexible fiscal spending.

"The era of 'Abenomics-style' reflationary policies — namely aggressive monetary easing and flexible fiscal policy — is over," Kiuchi said at a press conference.

Taken together, the officials' comments appeared to be a deliberate effort to boost the yen, aiming to counter the view that Japan's financial conditions are too loose.

Kiuchi noted that Japan is no longer in an "era of monetary easing" but has entered a phase of gradually rising prices and gradually climbing interest rates.

Late Friday morning local time, the yen briefly strengthened to around 158.33 per dollar, compared with about 158.70 before Katayama spoke.

"In my view this is largely just another form of verbal intervention," said Charu Chanana, chief investment strategist at Saxo Markets. "Unless it is followed by actual policy coordination, intervention, or a clearer tightening path from the Bank of Japan, I don't think it will materially change the fundamentals of the yen."

Earlier this week, Trump and Takaichi met on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly. During that meeting, the two leaders discussed a range of topics, from security and relations with China to Japan's pledge to invest $550 billion in the United States.

In late July, the United States and Japan conducted joint intervention in the foreign exchange market to boost the yen, the first joint action to support the yen in about 28 years.

Before Katayama's remarks, the yen had fallen back into the closely watched 160-per-dollar range after a five-day holiday. Last week, the yen continued to weaken after the Federal Reserve and the Bank of Japan raised interest rates in succession.

"My understanding is that the Bank of Japan raised its policy rate based on an assessment of the economy, prices and financial conditions, aiming to achieve its 2% price stability target in a sustainable and stable manner," Katayama said.

After raising its policy rate to 1.25% on Sept. 18, Bank of Japan Governor Kazuo Ueda hinted he was willing to tighten monetary policy further, saying he did not rule out a consecutive rate hike in October or a larger increase at some point in the future.

However, those signals were dwarfed by hawkish rhetoric around the Federal Reserve. After a unanimous decision to raise rates, the Fed's projections showed at least one more rate hike this year, prompting traders to see a 71% probability of another increase when the Fed next sets policy on Oct. 28.

After the yen weakened a week ago, financial regulators were reported to have conducted a rate check during New York trading hours last Friday, contacting banks to ask about current yen exchange rate levels — a move widely seen as a precursor to possible intervention in the currency market.

Katayama reiterated that she would avoid commenting on specific exchange rate levels and declined to confirm whether authorities conducted a "rate check" last Friday.

A year ago, the two countries' finance ministers issued a joint statement on foreign exchange policy, noting that excessive exchange rate volatility would harm the economy and that foreign exchange intervention should be an option to address such volatility.

"These views happened to be reaffirmed at this leaders' meeting," Katayama added.