71.   The spending plan is viewed as the next step in bolstering the economy and weakening the yen.

72.   The U.S. Treasury has also pressed the Japanese central bank for a looser monetary policy as a condition for American participating in any coordinated effort to weaken the yen.

73.   Then-U.S. Treasury Secretary Lloyd Bentsen put an end to the rally by calling for Japan to stop weakening the yen.

74.   Their purchases of U.S. securities help weaken the yen because Japanese need to sell yen for dollars to buy American stocks and bonds.

75.   They also help weaken the yen by making yen-denominated assets less attractive to foreign investors.

76.   They intervened Monday night to weaken the yen and prop up the dollar, in hopes of making their own exports cheaper on world markets.

77.   Things started looking up for the beleaguered market this summer, though, as central banks around the world bought dollars to weaken the yen.

78.   They need to sell yen for dollars and other currencies to buy foreign securities, weakening the yen.

79.   Those investments have in the past served to weaken the yen against the U.S. currency as investors sold yen for the dollars they needed to buy U.S. assets.

80.   Traders said falling Japanese stock prices could further weaken the yen.