Japan is always prepared to take "decisive" steps if excessively volatile movements in the currency market are repeated, a senior Finance Ministry official said Friday after the yen hit a fresh 32-year low against the U.S. dollar.
Masato Kanda, vice minister of finance for international affairs, issued the warning when he spoke to reporters on the sidelines of annual meetings in Washington of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.
Japanese authorities often use such verbal warnings to stem the yen's rapid depreciation. In September, they conducted their first yen-buying, dollar-selling intervention since 1998.
