Recent financial market volatility, triggered by a widespread selloff in emerging currencies, has started to raise concerns over the economy despite it having shown signs of overcoming nearly two decades of deflation.
Fears about a possible repeat of the Asian currency crisis in the late 1990s have sharply driven down share prices across the globe, including the Nikkei 225 stock average, which had soared 57 percent in 2013 on the back of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's policies dubbed "Abenomics."
The yen has been on an upward trend since early January, with demand growing for the currency regarded as a safe-haven investment, after it plunged last year due in part to the Bank of Japan's drastic monetary easing.