TOKYO (Kyodo) — Japan remains on high alert over foreign exchange movements, its top currency diplomat Atsushi Mimura said Thursday, following the yen’s sharp rise against the U.S. dollar in the day’s trading.
“I’m neither reassured nor satisfied” with the yen’s current levels in the currency market, the vice finance minister for international affairs told reporters, adding, “I think we need to stay on high alert.”
The dollar slipped to the lower 156 yen range in Tokyo after rising above the 160 yen line in recent trading, as market players expect the Bank of Japan to raise its key interest rate at the Sept. 17-18 policy meeting.
Mimura made the comments after he attended a meeting of Group of 20 finance and central bank chiefs earlier this week in the U.S. state of North Carolina.
Financial markets remain wary of possible currency intervention by the government and the Bank of Japan. In late July, authorities stepped into the market to prop up the yen when the dollar stayed above the 160 yen level.
On Wednesday, Hajime Takata, a hawkish BOJ Policy Board member, suggested that the central bank could accelerate the pace of rate hikes or increase the size of its rate increases.