By Daniel Leussink and Leika Kihara
TOKYO (Reuters) -Japan is ready to take action to deal with swift moves in the yen, Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Seiji Kihara said on Thursday, repeating the government's verbal warnings as the currency hovered around 24-year lows.
"We're worried about rapid and one-sided moves in the currency market," Kihara told a news conference. "If such moves continue, we would like to take necessary action," he said.
When asked about the possibility of conducting yen-buying intervention, Kihara said he would not comment on specific views held in markets.
The dollar hit a 24-year high of 144.99 yen on Wednesday as investors focused on the policy divergence between the U.S. Federal Reserve's aggressive interest rate hikes and the Bank of Japan's resolve to keep ultra-loose monetary policy.
In a sign of Tokyo's alarm over the yen's relentless fall, officials from the Ministry of Finance (MOF), Bank of Japan (BOJ) and Financial Services Agency (FSA) are holding a meeting on Thursday to discuss global financial markets.
The meeting is held occasionally and on an ad hoc basis, usually to signal to markets the government's concern over rapid exchange rate moves.
The dollar briefly dropped to 143.65 yen on Thursday after the MOF announced its plan to hold the trilateral meeting, before bouncing back to around 144.09 yen.
Once welcomed for boosting exports, the yen's weakness is becoming a headache for Japanese policymakers, because it drives up the cost of importing already expensive fuel and raw materials.