(Bloomberg) -- For currency traders in Japan the long weekend starting Friday won’t be much of a break as the market stays on high alert for official action after two suspected interventions this week.

Japanese authorities likely stepped into the foreign exchange market to support the embattled yen for the first time in a year and a half on April 29, a local holiday, and probably did so again Wednesday in US hours. Traders are bracing for possible repeat performances on May 3 and May 6, when Japan will be on Golden Week holidays.

May 6 will be especially closely watched because the London market will also be shut for May Day. That will likely reduce liquidity in the currency market, something that tends to exaggerate exchange-rate moves. Japanese authorities may also act if closely watched US jobs data on Friday bolster the dollar and further drag down the yen.

“The possibililty of more intervention during Golden Week is high,” said Takuya Kanda, head of research at Gaitame.com Research Institute. “Caution will be especially strong on the 6th as there’s the risk that the dollar will strengthen against the yen in reaction to US jobs data” on Friday, he said. 

The ruined holidays for Tokyo traders reflect Japanese officials’ efforts to prevent the yen from depreciating even more, due in part to concern it may spark more inflation that weighs on consumer spending in Asia’s second-biggest economy. But officials have largely failed to keep the yen strong after two suspected bouts of intervention this week, with analysts pointing to the wide interest-rate gap between Japan and the US as one of the fundamental factors causing the depreciation.

Some Tokyo market participants are cutting their holidays short in case they need to respond to clients in the event of sudden market moves. Yoshio Iguchi, head of the market department at Traders Securities Co., which provides foreign exchange margin trading to retail investors, is one of them. 

“I didn’t have any plans anyway for Golden Week,” said Iguchi. “I’ve had to cancel my break, but my family has gotten used to that, they don’t even complain anymore.”

Kenji Aikawa at Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp. said he will continue to check market rates from home during the holidays and will receive reports from colleagues in London and New York.

“Clients may be forced to develop new strategies, and we will be ready to respond after the holidays,” said Aikawa, who is the deputy general manager at the bank’s forex and financial products trading division in Tokyo.

Japan’s Golden Week holidays fall on April 29 and the 3rd and 6th of May this year, and many households take off the days between those to get a longer break.  

The nation’s top currency official Masato Kanda said on Thursday he has nothing to say on whether authorities stepped into the foreign exchange market. The vice finance minister for international affairs said the government will disclose intervention data at the end of the month.   

--With assistance from Takahiko Hyuga.

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