The yen rose to an eight-month high against the dollar yesterday after Hirohisa Fujii, Japan's finance minister, indicated that Tokyo would not intervene to stem its recent rise.
Fears that Japan would move to weaken the yen for the first time since 2004 have intensified in recent weeks as it rose rapidly through the Y90 level against the dollar.
Yesterday's heavy buying, however, sent the yen up to Y88.22 against the dollar, its strongest level since January 26. The jump came after Mr Fujii said that current moves in the dollar-yen exchange rate were “not abnormal”. He also said that “foreign exchange dumping” to defend Japanese exporters would be wrong.