The Bank of Japan moved off the sidelines. On June 16, 2026, it lifted its policy rate to 1%, the highest setting since 1995, and Governor Ueda signaled more increases if inflation and growth stay on track. Board members now discuss stepping the rate higher every few months toward a neutral level. Yet the yen spent most of June near its weakest levels against the dollar in four decades, held down by a wide interest-rate gap with the United States and repeated intervention warnings from the Ministry of Finance. In early July a fresh twist landed: talk of steering the giant Government Pension Investment Fund toward domestic assets, a potential structural tailwind for the currency. This edition walks through what the data shows, where policy sits, and the two-sided case you can build from here.