Japan marked a record three-year period free of currency intervention Friday as the Finance Ministry did not mention any such action in its monthly report for the Feb. 27-March 28 period.
The last time Japan directly stepped into the foreign-exchange market was on March 16, 2004. The country spent more than 35 trillion yen in dollar-buying, yen-selling intervention in the 15 months from January 2003 to stem sharp rises in the yen's value against the dollar.
A higher yen hurts Japanese exports, the main engine of Japanese economic growth.
A three-year absence of intervention is the longest on record, which the ministry started keeping in April 1991.
Japan's currency policy is controlled by the Finance Ministry with the central bank acting as its agent.