The dollar rose above 133 yen to hit a 39-month high against the yen at one point in Tokyo on Wednesday morning after a Japanese government official made remarks in favor of a weaker yen.

At 5 p.m., the dollar was quoted at 132 yen.50-53, down from 132 yen.80-90 at 5 p.m. Tuesday in New York and 132 yen.62-65 late Tuesday in Tokyo.

Over the course of the day, the dollar moved between 132.47 yen and 133.37 yen, trading most frequently at 132.98 yen.

In the early morning, the dollar rose steeply as it carried over strength from New York, where the dollar surged to a 39-month high against the yen on comments by Heizo Takenaka, minister in charge of fiscal and economic policy.

"Exchange rates should be left to market forces, and I don't think the market . . . is that far out of line from fundamentals," Takenaka told reporters in Washington after meeting with U.S. Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill.

The comments helped boost the dollar to the upper half of 132 yen in New York. In Tokyo, the dollar rose further to 133.37 yen, its highest quote here since Oct. 6, 1998.

"After the dollar breached the 133 yen wall, there were intermittent waves of stop-loss buying (of the dollar)," said Takashi Toyahara, manager of foreign exchange trading at Nomura Securities Co.

However, the dollar quickly weakened to 132.48 yen by midmorning. Dealers said the fall was due partly to remarks by Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda.

"It will be very difficult to work if the change is too rapid. But I think (a fall) like this is within a range that we can get along with," Fukuda said to reporters.

But he also said the yen's downswing seems to be "too fast" recently. This "capped the upside of the dollar," Toyahara said.

"I feel the pace of decline has been fast recently, but I think it appears to be relatively stable because it is on the foreign exchange market," Fukuda said of the yen's fall.