Japan's top financial diplomat said on Friday a Group of Seven joint statement last month was clear enough on the countries' currency policies, suggesting he would seek no major change when the group next meets in April.
"I think it was sufficiently clear," Zembei Mizoguchi, vice finance minister for international affairs, told reporters at the ministry.
"Of course there is nothing that stops us from changing a statement once it's issued. But there is no talk that it ought to be changed."
The Group of Seven industrial nations issued a statement at the end of a meeting in Boca Raton, Florida, in early February saying excessive volatility in currency rates was undesirable, while also calling for exchange rate flexibility.
That seemed to soothe market nerves after the group's previous statement issued in Dubai gave no warning on excessive volatility but called for flexibility.
The Dubai statement triggered a surge in the yen as markets interpreted it as a criticism of Japan's massive intervention.
Japanese authorities have intervened heavily over the past year by selling the yen to slow its rise against the dollar.
The G7 is expected to hold a deputies' meeting next week in Europe to discuss next month's meeting of top central bankers and finance ministers, although officials have neither disclosed details or even acknowledged such an event will take place.
Mizoguchi declined comment on whether the Japanese government recently intervened in the foreign exchange market to rein in the yen, last quoted at around 105.94/99 to the US dollar.
Finance Minister Sadakazu Tanigaki also declined on Friday to comment on the yen's current levels. He reiterated that the government's foreign exchange policy was unchanged.
"Fundamentally our stance is unchanged," Tanigaki told a news conference. "We will closely monitor market movements."
He also said he had not heard of plans, reported on Thursday by Japan's Kyodo news agency, for the G7 to invite China to its deputies' meeting.

Copyright Reuters, 2004

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