Japanese Finance Minister Jun Azumi made comments that were interpreted by some as disclosing rarely provided details about currency intervention.
Grilled in Parliament on Friday about the effectiveness of Japan's yen-selling operation in October, meant to tame the currency's rise, Mr. Azumi touched on specific yen-sale levels. Later, though, he said he was merely repeating figures put forth by an opposition lawmaker.
"It was a complete slip of the tongue, and it was shocking that the finance minister mentioned a specific intervention level, which he never should," said Yuzo Sakai, senior trader at Tokyo Forex and Ueda Harlow.
In response to the question by Yasutoshi Nishimura, Mr. Azumi said he instructed that intervention be carried out when the dollar fell to ¥75.63, referring to a number shown on a table Mr. Nishimura was using to illustrate the yen's movement at the time.
"I instructed that intervention be carried out at ¥75.63, as shown at the very top of lawmaker Nishimura's table," Mr. Azumi said. The table listed the dollar's closing rate against the yen in the days before and after the Oct. 31 intervention. The ¥75.63 figure was at the top of the list as the closing rate for Oct. 30.
Mr. Nishimura asked Mr. Azumi whether he was satisfied with the intervention, noting that the dollar had risen to ¥78.20, referring to the closing rate on Nov. 5, the day after the yen-selling campaign ended after six days and more than ¥9 trillion (about $116 billion).
The finance minister answered, "Regarding the question whether I am satisfied after we stopped at ¥78.20…I believe that it was effective to a certain extent."
The yen reacted little to the comments, with the dollar remaining largely in a narrow band between ¥77.50 and ¥77.70. Late in New York trading, the dollar was at ¥77.61 from ¥77.66 late Thursday.
Mr. Azumi tried to clarify his comments later at the ministry, saying he was merely reading what was shown on Mr. Nishimura's table and not referring to a particular level at which intervention was carried out. "Haven't you seen the parliamentary session?" he told reporters. "I said those things just because I was shown the board with exchange rates on the day of intervention and the day it ended. Let me make this clear to you. I didn't talk about any levels at all. Period," he said.
Earlier, Mr. Azumi did tell Parliament that Japan remained prepared to take action to curb the yen's rise. "If speculators are moving exchange rates through their speculative actions, I will not hesitate to intervene. That means that I will not at all hesitate to intervene unilaterally," Mr. Azumi said, using some of his strongest language to date to counter speculation that U.S. and European opposition might tie Tokyo's hands over currency policy.
European Central Bank President Mario Draghi on Thursday joined the U.S. in signaling an objection to Japan's unilateral yen sales, telling a news conference that intervention should be multilateral. The U.S. Treasury made it clear in a report last year that it didn't back Tokyo's unilateral actions in August and October.
Elsewhere, the dollar rose against most rivals, reversing losses in recent days, after euro-zone finance ministers delayed approval of a bailout package for Greece. Late Friday in New York, the euro was at $1.3199 compared with $1.3286 late Thursday. The pound traded at $1.5755 compared with $1.5818, while the dollar bought 0.9166 Swiss franc from 0.9118 franc.
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