• Seems comments from Japanese officials eventually impacted USD/JPY

• From 158.21 early high and 157.92 around time of comments, off to 157.55 EBS

• EconMin Kiuchi admitted Japan out of deflation, loose BOJ policy no needed

• Granted, he did say "excessive loose policy" and not loose policy per se

• And he did say BOJ and government should continue to communicate closely

• That said, government may now be less antagonistic towards BOJ hikes

• FinMin Katayama also hinted at review of 200 or so funds worth Y7 tln

• This suggested maybe moves to spur more domestic investment

• With Tokyo CPI jumping, CPI data finally turning up with wholesale prices

• USD/JPY weakness this afternoon has the pair back into its hourly Ichi cloud

• Cloud currently 157.39-70 and ascending, 100-HMA in cloud at 157.52

• Breaks below the 100-HMA and cloud could see more USD/JPY weakness

• This however looks to be contingent on what US NFP/jobs data has in store

• Related , , on official-speak

• On Tokyo CPI , for more click on [FXBUZ]

USD/JPY hourly:

(Haruya Ida is a Reuters market analyst. The views expressed are his own)