Investing.com - The dollar rose against the yen on Friday, as the greenback remained broadly supported by Thursday's upbeat jobless claims report, while the minutes of the Bank of Japan's latest meeting minutes showed that a majority of board members want to pursue asset purchases.
USD/JPY hit 119.99 during late Asian trade, the pair's highest since May 6; the pair subsequently consolidated at 119.93, adding 0.17%.
The pair was likely to find support at 119.02, Thursday's low and resistance at 120.54, the high of May 5.
The dollar strengthened after the U.S. Department of Labor reported on Thursday that the number of individuals filing for initial jobless benefits in the week ending May 2 rose by 3,000 to 265,000 from the previous week's total of 262,000.
Analysts had expected initial jobless claims to rise by 18,000 to 280,000 last week.
Investors were now looking ahead to Friday's U.S. nonfarm payrolls report for further indications on the strength of the U.S. job market.
Meanwhile, the minutes of the Bank of Japan's April policy meeting showed that a majority of board members were in favor of continuing the bank's agressive asset-buying program.
However, board member Takahide Kiuchi called on the BOJ to immediately cut its annual bond purchase target by almost half to ¥45 trillion a year. But his proposal was defeated by a 8-1 vote.
According to the minutes, some members said that reducing asset purchases before the bank's 2% inflation target was achieved would likely "constrain the effects" of the policy steps.
The yen was higher against the euro, with EUR/JPY dropping 0.50% to 134.22.