Tokyo, March 14 (Bloomberg) -- Japanese Finance Minister Masajuro Shiokawa said the government is ready to take ``appropriate action'' if it observes that the yen's value is being driven up by speculative trading. He said he has repeated the yen should be traded at about 150 yen per dollar given Japan's purchasing parity. Even so, Japan ``doesn't aim to keep the yen around 150 yen'' through actual trading activity, he said.
Foreign exchange rates should be decided by the market, Shiokawa said. The yen traded at 118.20 yen at 2:14 p.m. in Tokyo, from 118.55 in late New York trading yesterday. //www.quote.bloomberg.com