Finance Minister Hirohisa Fujii said people are wrong to think he is in favor of a stronger yen, even as the currency rose Monday to its highest level since January on speculation the government won't step in to the foreign-exchange market to help the country's exporters.
Since coming to office this month, Fujii has said he doesn't support a "weak yen" and questioned "the idea of easy intervention."
Speaking at a forum in Tokyo on Monday, Fujii said he "never said I will leave the yen to strengthen" and that he didn't necessarily accept gains in the currency. While declining to comment on foreign-exchange intervention, he said countries shouldn't compete to weaken currencies, and movements in foreign-exchange rates should be "stable."
The yen has risen 19 percent in the past year, making Japanese products shipped abroad more expensive and eroding repatriated profits. The Democratic Party of Japan has said a stronger currency may benefit households by making imported goods cheaper.
Earlier Monday the yen touched 88.24, its strongest level since Jan. 23. The gains helped send the Nikkei 225 stock average 2.5 percent lower, closing at 10,009.52.
Fujii acknowledged the yen's recent appreciation, telling reporters after the seminar that foreign-exchange movements "have been somewhat one-sided recently." At the same time, he stressed that households should underpin Japan's economic growth rather than exporters.
"The days of high growth driven by exports and big companies are over," Fujii said at the forum. "We want to focus on policies that will foster spending by consumers and domestic demand. Our policies, including child care handouts, aren't a free-for-all."