JAPANESE finance minister Yoshihiko Noda says Tokyo would take decisive steps to stem the yen’s rise when needed, while suggesting that coordinated currency market intervention was a difficult option.
Traders are getting cautious about bidding the yen up too much after Japanese ministers kept up warnings against the currency’s surge to 15-year high versus the dollar. Policymakers have repeatedly said they could take decisive action on the yen – normally a code phrase for currency intervention.
Prime Minister Naoto Kan and ruling party powerbroker Ichiro Ozawa are facing off in a ruling party leadership vote on 14 September that is distracting policymakers as Japan confronts a strong yen and weak economy.
