Japan has intervened in the currency market on Wednesday for the first time in

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six years, buying the dollar to stem a rise in the yen that is threatening a fragile economic recovery.

Finance Minister Yoshihiko Noda confirmed the intervention in a news conference.

The Bank of Japan appeared to have bought dollars at around 83 yen, two traders said.

The dollar, which had hit a new 15-year-low against the yen earlier in the morning, spiked higher.

Prime Minister Naoto Kan's government has been trying to talk down the yen but until Wednesday had stopped short of intervening in the markets, apparently worried that acting without Group of Seven partners would not be very effective.