The excessive strength in the yen that damaged Japanese manufacturing in recent years has now been corrected, according to an ally of Bank of Japan Gov. Haruhiko Kuroda.
"The abnormally strong yen has been corrected," said Yutaka Harada, who joined the central bank's Policy Board in March. The currency "may have come to a very good place," Harada, 64, said in an interview on Thursday in Tokyo.
Harada's remarks underscore that Japanese policymakers aren't seeking further declines in the currency, which on a trade-weighted basis is now back where it was before the Lehman Brothers meltdown of September 2008. Since reaching a postwar high of 75.35 in 2011, the yen has fallen 40 percent, aided by unprecedented monetary easing that Kuroda is using to reflate the world's third-biggest economy.
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