By Miyako Takebe
Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
TOKYO (Dow Jones)--The dollar fell back against the yen in Asia Friday, as Tokyo traders returned from year-end and New-Year's holidays to take profits in the U.S. currency following recent gains. But many traders maintain the overall trend remains in favor of a weaker yen, and any rebound in the Japanese currency will likely just be a temporary correction of heavy losses suffered in the face of Japan's dismal economic prospects. "With Japan's economic recovery apparently lagging behind others, there is still no reason to buy the yen other than to adjust the speed (of its recent fall)," said Satoshi Tate, vice president at Sanwa Bank. The view was backed by senior Japanese Finance Ministry bureaucrat Zembei Mizoguchi, who said Friday that he believes the overall trend in the dollar/yen remained unchanged. "The markets are prone to daily fluctuations, but there has been no large overall change within the wider trend," he told reporters. Speculation that Tokyo would not only tolerate but prefer a weaker yen - which helps the Japanese economy by boosting exports - has been part of the reason behind the yen's sharp depreciation over the past months. On Friday - Tokyo's first trading day this year - strong profit-taking pressure hit the greenback down from the outset of trading, pulling it off its Y131.83 high to a low of Y131.00. But while the dollar will likely consolidate in the near-term before heading higher, "if it manages to hold onto Y130.00, then it will likely head back up to around Y135.00" this month, added a senior trader at a Japanese brokerage. At 0515 GMT (12:15 a.m. EST), the dollar was quoted at Y131.07, below Y131.70 late Thursday in New York. The euro was at $0.8990, lower than $0.8993 late Thursday in New York. Against the yen, the euro was quoted at Y117.83, down from Y118.44 in New York late Thursday.