Finance Minister Taro Aso and Bank of Japan Gov. Haruhiko Kuroda may have felt relief as Group of Seven finance chiefs concluded their two-day meeting Saturday without overtly criticizing the BOJ's monetary easing experiment, which is weakening the yen.
The dollar approached the ¥102 line Friday in New York, its highest level since October 2008 as optimism grew about the U.S. economic recovery.
The outcome of the G-7 meeting, which could be taken as tacit approval of the yen's rapid decline, is likely to fuel further dollar buying, coupled with growing speculation that the U.S. Federal Reserve may wind down its quantitative easing policy earlier than expected.