Japan vows effort to maintain orderly yen moves

TOKYO, Sept 17 : Japan will continue to strive towards maintaining orderly yen moves through close communication with the United States, its top government spokesperson said on Thursday in the wake of the yen's renewed slide.

The US Federal Reserve's interest rate hike on Wednesday triggered a broad dollar rise. The yen fell to around 155.50 in Asia on Thursday, off a seven-month high of 152.89 hit earlier this month on bets of speedier Bank of Japan rate hikes.

"We will continue to communicate closely with the US Treasury Department and strive towards maintaining an orderly currency market," Chief Cabinet Secretary Minoru Kihara told a regular news conference, when asked about the Fed's move.

"Our stance has absolutely not changed since the time Japan and the US conducted joint intervention at the end of July," he said.

Japan and the United States launched a rare joint yen-buying intervention on July 31 and vowed to take further action if needed to shore up the currency, a move that pushed the yen well off a 40-year low near 164 hit earlier in July.

Finance Minister Satsuki Katayama told a separate news briefing that Japan has stated its determination to address excessive currency volatility when launching the joint intervention.

Katayama also said she expected the BOJ to closely coordinate with the government and conduct appropriate monetary policy to achieve its 2 per cent inflation target.

Both Kihara and Katayama were re-appointed to their posts in a cabinet reshuffle announced later on Thursday.

The BOJ is set to raise interest rates to a 31-year high of 1.25 per cent on Friday, though analysts say the widely expected move is unlikely to prop up the yen unless Governor Kazuo Ueda delivers a hawkish message on the pace of future rate increases.