Japan can step into the currency market on its own to sell yen for dollars without consulting the United States, Finance Minister Kiichi Miyazawa said Friday.
"We should intervene if necessary. That's it. We don't have to hesitate at all. We don't have to do it if it isn't necessary, though," Miyazawa said at a regular news conference.
It was the finance minister's clearest message on Tokyo's position vis-a-vis the yen's recent appreciation.
He brushed aside a question about whether a meeting later this month of finance ministers and central bankers from the Group of Seven industrialized countries would give him an opportunity to discuss the yen-dollar rate.
"We don't have to wait until then. We don't have to consult at such a place," he said. He and U.S. Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers have basically agreed that the Japanese government can sell yen unilaterally if it wants, Miyazawa added.
But he avoided commenting on whether the current yen-dollar rate is desirable for Japanese industry. "I am watching (the exchange rate) movements with a great caution," he said.