Japan’s finance minister, Satsuki Katayama, is under pressure to strengthen the yen while balancing competing demands from the prime minister and Washington.

A weak yen, which has pushed up import prices and broader inflation, has been blamed in part on the central bank’s slow pace of rate increases.

Japan’s finance minister, Satsuki Katayama, is under pressure to strengthen the yen while balancing competing demands from the prime minister and Washington.