An adviser to Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe signaled a preference for the yen at 100 to 110 per dollar, a range last sustained in 2008. Koichi Hamada, a retired Yale University economics professor now advising Abe on choosing the next Bank of Japan governor, told reporters in Tokyo that an exchange rate of 100 would be good for the economy. He also said it would be a problem if the yen fell to 110 per dollar. The yen has weakened about 4.5 percent since Abe took office last month, with his administration pushing for more monetary easing and a doubled inflation target at the central bank. The government and Bank of Japan will issue a joint policy statement at next week’s central bank meeting, Finance Minister Taro Aso said earlier today. Hamada, who once taught the current BOJ governor, Masaaki Shirakawa, said that the central bank has no choice but to conduct further monetary easing. He also said that the bank was to blame for the failure of Elpida Memory Inc. by not expanding its balance sheet sufficiently, which led to a strong yen. Japanese exporters have been hampered in recent years by strength in the yen, which reached a postwar high in 2011. To contact the reporter on this story: James Mayger in Tokyo at jmayger@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Paul Panckhurst at ppanckhurst@bloomberg.net

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