Authorities won't weaken the yen to become more competitive with other countries in trade and any currency intervention would be aimed at restraining excessive moves, Senior Vice Finance Minister Fumihiko Igarashi said Thursday.
"It's not our intention to engage in a currency-devaluation race for the sake of the national interest," Igarashi said in an interview. "We could conduct smoothing operations when movements are extremely volatile. That would be permissible."
The yen hit its highest rate against the dollar since 1995 in New York on Wednesday, surpassing the level at which Japanese authorities last month intervened for the first time since 2004. Finance chiefs from the Group of Seven major industrialized nations are poised to discuss exchange rates at a meeting Friday in Washington.