Japanese gov't intervenes 5 times in foreign exchange market in Q4

The Japanese government carried out five rounds of interventions into the foreign exchange market in the last three months of 2011, spending about 9.09 trillion yen ( about 118.7 billion U.S. dollars), the data from Finance Ministry revealed Tuesday.The moves were aimed to keep in check the sharp appreciation of the Japanese currency against the U.S. dollar which had been eroding the profits of the exporters in the country.The U.S. dollar bought 75.32 yen on Oct. 31 last year, marking a postwar peak. The Japanese government stepped into the market with a record 8.07 trillion yen intervention on that day.The step was followed by a total of 1.02 trillion yen interventions in early November by unannounced operations.However, the effect of these attempts had been questioned as the yen tended to gradually resume its strength after the movements.Eisuke Sakakibara, known as "Mr. Yen," warned at a recent press conference in Tokyo's foreign correspondents' club that the interventions would not be effective if the government did not seek coordination from the U.S. government.