Finance Minister Masajuro Shiokawa on Tuesday again tried to talk down the yen, demand for which is growing as confidence in the U.S. economy melts and New York stock prices slide.

"The important thing is stability," Shiokawa said of the currency exchange market. "It's a bit too volatile."

The Bank of Japan bought some $3 billion of the U.S. currency in Tokyo on Friday in its third intervention in two weeks to curb the yen's upswing.