The meeting of Group of 20 finance chiefs this week in Washington, rather than showing unity, revealed a bitter divide among the world's major economies over Russia's invasion of Ukraine, despite no shortage of other pressing issues to discuss.
For Japan, the yen's recent fast-paced depreciation was a central concern it hoped to raise. But despite Finance Minister Shunichi Suzuki taking every opportunity to raise the issue, his efforts to arrest its weakness seem to have borne no fruit.
Suzuki said he discussed with U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen the yen's "rapid" decline and also touched on the issue during a separate meeting with his counterparts from the Group of Seven developed countries.