A plan by the Bank of Japan to conduct cash-absorbing money market operations suggests the central bank sold about 500 billion yen in its latest yen-weakening intervention Thursday.

The BOJ said Friday it will conduct bill-selling operations to drain 2 trillion yen from the money market on Monday. Money market participants say this is intended to soak up the yen released into the money market through the BOJ's yen-selling intervention on the foreign exchange market.

The participants said the money market is expected to have a funds surplus of about 1.5 trillion yen Monday, meaning the BOJ is to conduct operations to soak up the same amount of funds without special factors.

The BOJ currently "sterilizes" interventions by removing from circulation the yen released into the market after it sells yen on the foreign exchange market.