USD/JPY Breakout
New Japanese leadership signals massive fiscal stimulus. BOJ stays ultra-accommodative far longer than expected. Yen bears have been handed the perfect catalyst.
October 2025New Leadership, Old Playbook
The new PM's victory speech laid it out plainly: "bold fiscal action" to kickstart growth, with a supplemental budget rumored north of ¥20 trillion.
Markets read between the lines instantly — this means delayed or abandoned BOJ normalization. Rate hikes? Maybe one token move in 2026, if we're lucky.
Japan's structural issues haven't vanished: aging population, high public debt, export reliance in a tariff-heavy world. The easy answer is always print-and-spend. The yen takes the hit.
Carry Trade Rebuilding
Carry traders are piling back in — funding in low-yielding yen to buy higher-yielding dollar assets — rebuilding positions that unwound violently last year.
Contrast Japan with the U.S.: inflation still sticky (real-world costs screaming higher), Fed firmly on hold, tariffs reinforcing dollar exceptionalism.
Yield differentials are widening again, and capital flows follow. The setup is textbook dollar-bullish.
Technical Picture: Clean Breakout
The chart couldn't look cleaner. After consolidating for months below 158 resistance, the election catalyst delivered a weekly close well above — volume surging, momentum resetting bullish.
Next targets: 162 (2022 highs extension), 165–170 longer-term if stimulus details exceed expectations.
Support: 155–156 — former resistance turned floor. Risk/reward skews heavily favorable.
Bottom Line
The new Japanese Prime Minister's stimulus pivot is the gift that keeps giving for yen bears. Easier fiscal policy, delayed BOJ tightening, and rebuilding carry flows point to sustained weakness.
USD/JPY has clear air toward 165+ into year-end and beyond. We're aggressively long — one of our highest-conviction forex trades right now. Size it accordingly; the trend is your friend here.
Vector Ridge is long USD/JPY with strong conviction. Maximum overweight precious/industrial metals (gold, silver, platinum, palladium, uranium); core AI infrastructure leaders (NVIDIA, Alphabet). This article represents our views at the time of publication and should not be considered investment advice.
Japan's new Prime Minister has signalled bold fiscal stimulus, with a supplemental budget rumoured north of 20 trillion yen, which markets read as delayed or abandoned BOJ normalisation. Combined with sticky US inflation and a Fed on hold, widening yield differentials revive the dollar-yen carry trade and hand yen bears a clean catalyst.
The pair has broken cleanly above the 158 resistance that capped it for months, with next targets at 162 (a 2022-highs extension) and 165 to 170 longer-term if stimulus details exceed expectations. Former resistance at 155 to 156 is now expected to act as support, leaving risk/reward skewed heavily in favour of the long.
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