The yen weakened beyond 115 per dollar for the first time in seven years as the Bank of Japan increased stimulus while the Federal Reserve moved toward raising interest rates.
The yen fell for a sixth day versus the euro after BOJ Gov. Haruhiko Kuroda said Wednesday he saw no limit to the steps the central bank may take to stoke inflation.
The dollar rose versus most of its 16 major counterparts before a U.S. report Friday that economists say will show employers hired workers at a faster pace in October than this year's average. The euro was little changed against the dollar before the European Central Bank set policy Thursday.
"I don't see anything to stop the yen from weakening," said Makoto Noji, the senior debt strategist at SMBC Nikko Securities Inc. "Kuroda's comments as well as the government's tolerance to yen weakness are helping to push the yen lower."
Kuroda said Wednesday the BOJ will continue easing as long as needed to achieve stable 2 percent inflation and will adjust monetary policy without hesitation if necessary. At a meeting on Oct. 31, the BOJ raised the annual target for buying Japanese government bonds to ¥80 trillion, from ¥60 trillion to ¥70 trillion.
"We've seen the Nikkei coming off very sharply and it looks like dollar-yen tracked that move," said Mitul Kotecha, head of Asia-Pacific foreign exchange strategy at Barclays in Singapore. "The momentum still seems to be for further upward moves in dollar-yen."