COMMENT-USD/JPY may be heading for denouement

April 15 (Reuters) - The growing risk of foreign exchange intervention from Japan, coupled with an expanding speculative short yen position, is raising the USD/JPY price action temperature towards boiling point.

This could result in USD/JPY tumbling through 150 if Japan intervenes to strengthen the yen - or extending north towards 160 if it does not.

Friday's CFTC data on FX positioning showed the net yen short rose by more than 10% for a fourth consecutive week to a 17-year high of 162,151 contracts in the week ended April 9 - just before USD/JPY vaulted 152 for the first time since 1990.

USD/JPY built on gains spurred by hot U.S. CPI data on April 10 in climbing to a new 34-year high just shy of 154 on Monday.

Japan's top currency diplomat, Masato Kanda, said on Monday he was in frequent, regular talks with U.S. and other countries' authorities on currency markets. Japan's finance minister Shunichi Suzuki said he was watching currency moves closely.

Related comment: