Japan will take "appropriate" steps if the yen's volatility increases excessively, Finance Minister Shunichi Suzuki said Tuesday, as the currency weakened against the U.S. dollar to levels near where it was when Japanese authorities intervened last month.
The government is monitoring developments in the foreign exchange market with "a strong sense of vigilance," Suzuki told reporters, amid market caution about another possible intervention to stem the yen's sharp drop.
Suzuki said he plans to explain Japan's position on currency intervention when he meets with finance chiefs from the Group of 20 economies in Washington on Wednesday and Thursday.
"There is no change in our stance of taking appropriate action should we see excessive volatility (in the currency market)," he said.
Suzuki refrained from saying whether the yen's movements after the intervention have been one-sided and driven by speculators, descriptions he has previously used.
The dollar was trading in the upper 145 yen range on Tuesday after breaching the 145 mark last week.
Japan stepped into the market to stem what Suzuki called "rapid, one-sided" depreciation on Sept. 22, when it likely spent a record 2.84 trillion yen ($19 billion) in its first yen-buying, dollar-selling operation in about 24 years.
The dollar fell by around 5 yen shortly after the intervention but has rebounded since, reflecting the widening interest rate gap between the United States and Japan.
"It's not just the yen that has been falling against the dollar because other major currencies are also in a similar situation," Suzuki said.
The impact of monetary tightening by the U.S. and other major central banks on the global economy will likely be on the agenda of the G-20 finance ministers' meeting, along with food and energy insecurity caused by Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Suzuki said.
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Japan to respond "resolutely" to speculative yen moves: finance chief
