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Investors are awaiting the latest decision on interest rates from the Federal Reserve. Wall Street expects no change in rates from the central bank when it makes its announcement later Wednesday.

The Bank of Japan raised its key interest rate to 0.25% on Wednesday. With the Federal Reserve poised to start lowering rates soon, that could help weaken the dollar and help the yen.

While the BOJ move was widely expected, it’s significant because it ends decades of Japan keeping short-term interest rates near or below zero. It’s another step toward a more traditional monetary policy in the world’s third-largest economy, which fell into deflation in the 1990s and is only now recovering.

It’s also critical for the yen, which had fallen to record low levels against the dollar earlier this year. Driving the move down was the BOJ’s reluctance to raise rates, combined with the Fed’s hesitance to start cutting.

The yen strengthened to about 150 against the dollar from about 155 on Tuesday. The dollar index, a measure of the U.S. currency’s strength against a basket of peers, was down 0.3% early Wednesday.

Higher central bank interest rates tend to strengthen currencies by increasing returns on investments; lower interest rates tend to do the opposite.