The dollar dropped to a session low of 80.71 yen, according to the EBS trading platform. It was last at 80.72, down 0.4 percent on the day.

"There have been some wild movements across the yen universe on the back of risk aversion, which has been the general theme in place all day," said Camilla Sutton, chief currency strategist at Scotia Capital in Toronto.

"We are still trading within a range and are just retracing some of yesterday's price action," she said.