The meander of the Kuroshio path, with periods of 30--90 days, dominates Tokara Strait, Japan. To understand the time-frequency variability of this meander, two Kuroshio indicators were subjected to wavelet analysis for the period 1984--2004. The 30--90 day variance of the position of the Kuroshio in Tokara Strait shows a season-fixed nature, with larger amplitudes in the period December--July. The amplitude of the variance in this phenomenon is also modulated by interannual variations, with small variance recorded during 1989--1992, large variance during 1993--1998, and a return to small variance from 1999--2003. This interannual variation is positively correlated with that of Kuroshio volume transport in Tokara Strait. The largest variance during February--April precedes the largest volume transport in April--May by about 1 month, suggesting that mesoscale menders are the forcing of the volume transport increase, not the other way around.