By Isabel Reynolds
TOKYO, Dec 17 - The yen slid to new multi-year lows against the dollar and euro on Monday as Japan's top foreign exchange official implied he would be happy to see it even weaker. But a round of profit-taking kept the yen above the day's lows for the remainder of the session.
The dollar trampled the yen to 128.03, its lowest since Oct 11, 1998, after Haruhiko Kuroda, Japan's vice finance minister of international affairs, said he was unconcerned by the yen's rapid decline against the dollar. He added that he welcomed the euro's rise on the yen. "The yen is still in the process of correcting from excessive strength compared with economic fundamentals," Kuroda told reporters on Monday morning.
Finance Minister Masajuro Shiokawa also seemed unconcerned about the sagging yen when he trotted out his mantra that currency levels should be left to the markets. The two officials' remarks dashed market speculation that Japanese authorities might be alarmed enough by the speed of the yen's tumble to step into the market in support of its own currency.
That view had emerged after Shiokawa said on Friday that currencies were moving too quickly. "It was surprising; normally they try and control these moves more closely but here they're pretty much giving the market free rein," said Ron Leven, currency strategist at Lehman Brothers.

EXPORTERS GAIN LITTLE
The Japanese government is thought to favour a lower yen to bolster the competitiveness of the country's exports.
However, Monday's move had only a muted effect on shares in Japan's leading exporters. Shares in Fuji Photo Film Co Ltd <4901.T>, which secures around half its sales overseas, were among the few gainers -- up two percent. The key Nikkei average of 225 selected issues fell 1.79 percent on the day.
Against the euro, the yen dipped to a 26-month low of 115.64 . That move gave the euro a lift against the dollar, bringing it to around $0.9033 in mid-afternoon, just above Friday's late New York levels of $0.9024.
Traders and analysts noted that the number of market participants was already down ahead of the year-end holidays, making movements volatile.
"The market is thin and biased in one direction, so I wouldn't be surprised to see the pair jump to 130 yen all of a sudden," said a dealer at a foreign bank.

BOJ MEETING IN SIGHT
Satoru Ogasawara, analyst at Credit Suisse First Boston, said: "Even if the pair doesn't make 130 yen by the end of the year, that is surely where it is headed in the medium term." There was a hurdle for the euro later Monday with the release of the German Ifo business sentiment survey for November, though a survey of analysts found that on average they expected the index to steady at 84.9 after a drop to 84.7 in October.
The yen faces obstacles of its own, including the Bank of Japan's two-day policy meeting starting on Tuesday.
BOJ Governor Masaru Hayami dampened speculation about radical action from the central bank when he told a parliamentary committee in the afternoon that he saw no need to increase outright purchases of long-term government bonds. He also repeated his opposition to the idea of the buying foreign bonds.