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According to Cnbc, Japanese investors net bought more than 5 trillion yen of foreign equities and long-term bonds in the two weeks ended Aug. 15. That contrasted with net selling of more than 300 billion yen in the preceding two weeks, Ministry of Finance data showed.

The buying followed last month’s joint U.S.-Japan currency intervention, which lifted the yen from about 164 per dollar to roughly 155. The currency subsequently gave back much of that advance and weakened back toward 159 against the dollar. Market watchers said the rally gave investors more favorable exchange rates for purchasing overseas assets.

Jesper Koll, expert director at Monex Group, said intervention had “turbo charged” the carry trade for fundamental and long-term investors. He said carry trades would reassert themselves as long as Japan’s cost of money remained below returns available overseas. Japanese retail and institutional investors used the stronger yen to establish positions in non-yen assets, particularly higher-yielding U.S. bills and bonds, he said.

The short-lived gains have increased focus on the Bank of Japan’s ability to narrow yield differentials with the United States. The U.S.-Japan 10-year yield spread was roughly 1.8 percentage points as of Thursday. Francis Tan, Asia chief strategist at Indosuez Wealth Management, said the intervention addressed a “symptom” rather than the structural forces of low Japanese borrowing costs and wide rate gaps.

Masahiko Loo of State Street Investment Management said long-term investors continued selling yen against higher-yielding G10 currencies. Separately, CFTC data showed leveraged funds cut net short yen positions from almost 138,000 contracts at the end of June to 59,526 as of Aug. 11.