One trader said Japanese banks then stepped in to buy dollars against the yen at 76.00 yen.

The dollar last traded at 76.21 yen, down 0.8 percent on electronic trading platform EBS, after going as low as 75.78 yen.

The euro simultaneously rose to a session high against the dollar though much of that was spill-over from the dollar selling against the yen. The euro was last up 0.4 percent at $1.3832 after climbing as high as $1.3851.