The dollar shot up almost 1.5 yen at one point Wednesday in Tokyo as the Bank of Japan intervened to head off the yen's rise, but the intervention failed to have a lasting effect on the market.
At 5 p.m., the dollar changed hands at 107 yen.07-09, up from 106.15-25 yen at 5 p.m. in New York on Tuesday. It briefly hit a high of 107.50 yen during the morning, up from an early morning low of 106.02 yen. It most frequently traded at 107.20 yen.
The BOJ last stepped into the currency market Jan. 4, when the dollar dropped to as low as 101.46 yen in Tokyo.