Reuters
Japan's top currency diplomat Masato Kanda said that authorities are "seriously concerned and on high alert" about the yen's rapid decline, escalating warnings as the Japanese currency languished at its weakest level in almost forty years. "It is generally accepted that the current weakness in the yen is not necessarily justified, therefore believed to be driven by speculators," Kanda, the vice finance minister for international affairs, told reporters on Wednesday. Japan's currency touched 160.50 per dollar, the weakest since December 1986, creating market jitters over the possibility of another intervention to support the yen.