Tokyo, Feb. 27 (Bloomberg) -- Japan's Zembei Mizoguchi, vice finance minister for international affairs, made the following comments about Japan's foreign exchange policy. He spoke to reporters at the Ministry of Finance: ``The yen's gain in the past 10 days was rapid and that's not appropriate. Japan monitors foreign exchange markets closely and will take action when it's necessary to do so.''
The yen has gained 2.8 percent against the dollar in the past 10 days. Mizoguchi declined to comment when asked if Japan had sold yen to halt the currency's rise against the dollar in recent days. The yen traded at 117.07 to the dollar at 9:36 a.m. in Tokyo from 117.17 late in New York yesterday. Japan's currency was little changed at 126.41 against the euro.//www.quote.bloomberg.com