The Japanese yen softened against other major currencies as investors took profits on the strong gains made since last week, as well as due to a delayed reaction to weak Japanese GDP figures.The yen rose strongly last week on risk aversion after woeful US jobs data scared markets into expecting the worse, including a recession in the US which could derail global growth. The yen, traditionally used to fund risky trades, was boosted, particularly against the dollar. Investors now seem to be taking profits on some of those gains.At the same time, weak Japanese GDP, which fell by a quarterly 0.3 pct in the second quarter, is also likely to blame for the yen's retreat. "It would appear that the Asian session was more preoccupied with the falling equity markets and the associated flight out of carry trades than the contraction in Japanese economic growth during the second quarter," said Peter Stoneham at IFR Markets. "Into European (trading) the focus looks to have changed with the poor Japanese GDP data finally having a negative impact on the yen," said Stoneham. This has caused the yen to weaken mostly against the dollar, which slumped on the poor US jobs report on Friday, and gave traders an opportunity to buy back into the dollar. Against all other currencies, however, the dollar remained weak on the assumption that the Federal Reserve is going to cut rates at its September 18 meeting, if not before. "The jobs data has now shifted the focus from whether the Fed will cut on September 18 to what magnitude the cut will be," said Mitul Kotecha at Calyon. Kotecha noted that the market is looking for the Fed to react with aggressive rate cuts, possibly by 50 basis points this month alone.