• The Japanese Yen remains depressed near a multi-decade low amid the BoJ’s dovish outlook.
• Reduced Fed rate cut bets lift the USD to a fresh YTD top and further lend support to USD/JPY.
• Intervention fears and a softer risk tone could help limit deeper losses for the safe-haven JPY.

The Japanese Yen (JPY) struggles to gain any meaningful traction during the Asian session on Tuesday and languishes near the 34-year low touched against its American counterpart the previous day. A report on Monday suggested that the Bank of Japan (BoJ) will place less emphasis on inflation and shift to a more discretionary approach in setting monetary policy. Meanwhile, BoJ Governor Kazuo Ueda said that after ending negative rates in March, the central bank would revert to a normal monetary policy that lets various data guide the future rate hike path. This adds to the BoJ's uncertain outlook for future rate hikes and continues to undermine the JPY. 

In contrast, the markets pushed back expectations for the first interest rate cut by the Federal Reserve (Fed) following the release of the hotter-than-expected US consumer inflation figures for March. This suggests that the large rate differential between the two countries will stay for some time, which, along with a bullish US Dollar (USD), acts as a tailwind for the USD/JPY pair. Meanwhile, the recent jawboning by Japanese authorities and a softer risk tone could help limit losses for the safe-haven JPY. This, in turn, might hold back traders from placing fresh bullish bets around the currency pair amid overbought technical indicators on the daily chart.