TOKYO: The dollar weakened against the yen in Asian trade on Friday while the euro was mixed ahead of weekend elections in Greece that are widely seen as a referendum on its future in the eurozone.
The greenback was changing hands at 79.04 yen from 79.34 yen in New York late Thursday, while the euro bought $1.2632 and 99.87 yen, from $1.2630 and 100.21 yen in US trade.
A Bank of Japan decision Friday morning to keep interest rates unchanged at zero to 0.1 percent had little immediate impact on rates, dealers said.
"Ahead of Geece's election, there is no sense of direction in the currency market," Masafumi Yamamoto, chief currency strategist at Barclays Capital, said in a note to clients.
Traders were closely watching the BoJ for signs of fresh easing as well as key US economic data later Friday, but "the sensitivity of the market to these events will be lower" than usual because of the Greek elections, he added.
Polls show Greek voters split between supporting pro-bailout parties and the leftist Syriza party which wants to renegotiate an EU-IMF bailout, warning it was ready to tear up the agreement.
Syriza leader Alexis Tsipras has set a 10-day deadline to renegotiate the bailout deal, which he claims is killing the country's hard-hit economy.
If the rescue deal fails there are widespread worries that Greece would default on its massive debt and be forced out of the 17-nation eurozone.
A Syriza victory would weigh on the euro, Yamamoto said, but added that "Syriza could ease its stance of opposing financial austerity as it is not calling for a euro exit, in which case the euro selling" may ease.
Pressure on European leaders to find a solution to the regional crisis has been mounting ahead of a G20 summit in Mexico next week that is expected to focus on containing the eurozone's fiscal woes.
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