SINGAPORE, Nov 5 (Reuters) - The yen could rise to 80 per dollar as the carry trade that has depressed the currency for several years is unwound, Eisuke Sakakibara, a former top official at the Ministry of Finance, said on Wednesday.
The currency was changing hands around 99.75 per dollar at 0353 GMT.
"Because of the yen carry trade, the yen has depreciated fairly significantly over the last four or five years," said Sakakibara, known as "Mr Yen" for spearheading Japan's yen intervention while vice finance minister in the 1990s.
"So what is happening right now is the unwinding process of this cheap yen bubble," he said.
The yen has risen 11.6 percent against the dollar so far this year as investors have unwound investments funded in yen.
"Until dollar/yen reached something like 80, I think we shouldn't intervene," he told reporters on the sidelines of a seminar in Singapore.
"It could go to 80 -- it's a very volatile market."