Japan's Finance Ministry and the Bank of Japan conducted stealth intervention in the currency market during the December quarter of 2011 to contain yen gains, data from the Ministry of Finance confirmed Tuesday.
Japan carried out yen-selling, dollar-buying operations for five consecutive days starting October 31, the data shows. On October 31, when the yen climbed to a post-war high of 75.35 against the dollar, the total value of foreign exchange intervention operations reached a record JPY 8.07 trillion.
After the announced full-scale operation on October 31, Japan sold a total of JPY 1.02 trillion during the first four days of November. Total amount of foreign exchange intervention operations for the period from October through December 2011, therefore, amounted to JPY 9.09 billion.
Stealth intervention refers to interventions without any official announcement from the Finance Ministry or any other government authorities.
Recently, Finance Minister Jun Azumi repeatedly warned of "decisive" action against speculative moves and said the recent fresh gains in yen was triggered by US Federal Reserve's plan to keep interest low until 2014.
In a separate release, the ministry said that Japan's reserve assets rose to $1.307 trillion as of January 31, 2012, from $1.29 trillion at the end of December 2011.
Japan's gold reserves rose to $42.91 billion in January from $37.67 billion at the end of the previous month. The country's foreign currency reserves stood at $1.23 trillion at the end of last month, while IMF reserves were at $17.36 billion.
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