ORLANDO, Florida, Feb 25 Reuters Hedge funds are wagering one of their biggest bets against the Japanese yen in years, pushing Japanese authorities39; tolerance of the currency39;s slide towards new 34year depths to the limit.

Although Tokyo has cranked up the warnings recently that rapid moves in the exchange rate are undesirable, there are reasons to believe there may be less appetite to carry out largescale yenbuying intervention than there was in 2022.

Speculative market positioning, however, is one variable that could push Tokyo to act. And speculators have the bit between their teeth.

The latest Commodity Futures Trading Commission data show that funds increased their net short yen position to more than 120,000 contracts in the week ending Feb. 20 from just over 111,000 the week before.

That39;s a 10 billion, leveraged bet on the yen weakening.

A short position is essentially a wager an asset39;s price will fall, and a long position is a bet it will rise. Hedge funds often take directional bets on currencies, hoping to get on the right side of longterm trends.

And the yen has weakened substantially. It has shed 6 of its value against the dollar so far this year, falling below 150.00 per dollar to within sight of its post1990 lows around 152.00 per dollar.

The yen is the worstperforming major currency this year as funds and others have traded on the huge U.S.Japan interest rate and bond yield gap and bet that it will persist. Either the Bank of Japan will be…