The yen weakened, falling toward 100 per dollar for the firsttime since April 2009, after Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kurodasaid he was emboldened to press ahead with a campaign to defeatdeflation.

Japan's currency dropped against 14 of its 16 major counterpartsafter the Group of 20 offered no opposition to the central bank'smonetary stimulus policies at a meeting last week in Washington.Sweden's krona strengthened after Riksbank Deputy Governor LarsE.O. Svensson said he will leave the central bank after failing toget support for deeper interest-rate cuts. The euro rose for athird day versus the yen after Giorgio Napolitano was re-elected toa second term as Italian president.

“The G-20 gave a green light to sell the yen,” Kiran Kowshik, acurrency strategist at BNP Paribas SA in London, said in atelephone interview. “The focus now is on what a lot of theJapanese investor base is doing in the new fiscal year.”