Ever said something and then immediately wished you hadn’t? Since Hirohisa Fujii was quoted as saying he didn’t support a “weak yen” a fortnight ago, causing the currency to surge, every attempted clarification from the Japanese finance minister and his underlings has been seized on, driving volatility up by about a fifth.

Currency markets need basic guidance, of course. Investors’ working assumption had been that since the recently elected Democratic Party of Japan has sold itself as the antithesis of the Liberal Democrats, they could no longer assume occasional intervention to stem yen gains. But now that Mr Fujii has clumsily signalled that the DPJ will not be changing much, he should drop it and move on.