/www.bloomberg.com/ By Daisuke Takato
Tokyo, Feb. 7 (Bloomberg) -- Japan's official reserve assets rose $8.87 billion last month from December after the government sold its currency to stem its gains against the dollar.
Japan held $478.6 billion of official reserves and $459.8 billion in foreign currency reserves, which include securities and deposits with overseas central banks, the Ministry of Finance said.
Last week, the government said it spent about 700 billion yen ($5.8 billion) to buy dollars since mid-January to stem the yen's 11 percent gain against the dollar in the past year.
Official reserves -- which add International Monetary Fund reserve positions, special drawing rights and gold -- are used when the government buys foreign currency or for international settlements such as payments for imports.
Japan has been the world's biggest holder of reserve assets since October 1999. The government had previously sold yen between May 22 and June 28 last year, spending 4 trillion yen in total, according to Finance Ministry statistics.