The Bank of Japan's stimulus is building a wall against the yen gaining beyond ¥100 to the dollar, amid an investor flight into the currency as a haven, according to Nomura Holdings Inc.
The yen has climbed 3 percent against the greenback this year, set for its biggest first-quarter advance since March 2008, when the global financial crisis was about to unfold. The median forecast of analysts in a Bloomberg survey held at ¥110 by year-end even after the yen strengthened to a four-month high of ¥100.76 on Feb. 4.
"An image of a firm floor for dollar-yen is forming," said Shogo Fujita, a strategist at Bank of America Merrill Lynch in Tokyo. "That is one spill-over effect from the BOJ's Japanese government bond buying."