Bank of Japan (BOJ) Governor Kazuo Ueda stated at a press conference on Friday that as medium-to-long-term inflation expectations continue to rise, there is an upside risk that Japan's potential inflation rate could exceed the 2% target. Therefore, the BOJ will continue to raise interest rates based on economic and price developments. He identified the situation in the Middle East, the expansion of AI demand, and the trend of the Japanese yen exchange rate as the three major external variables influencing future interest rate movements. Affected by this, USD/JPY fell by approximately 50 points in the short term, returning below the 157 mark.