04:31 AM EDT, 06/06/2024 (MT Newswires) -- The Japanese yen fell against a rising US dollar and underperformed other major currencies during early European trade on Thursday as rising government bond yields and dovish remarks from a central bank official appeared to undermine the currency.

USD/JPY was quoted 0.29% higher around 156.35, making the yen the worst-performing currency in both G10 and G20 baskets, following an uptick in advanced economy bond yields and remarks from the Bank of Japan board member Toyoaki Nakamura.

Nakamura told a press conference in Sapporo on Thursday that Japan's economy is not yet strong enough to merit the BoJ tapering its government bond purchases before arguing that the bank should not resort to monetary policy in order to keep the yen from falling.

The yen softened against a mixed backdrop for stock markets in the Asia Pacific, and a weak performance from 'high beta' currencies like the Australian dollar and New Zealand dollar, which gave ground to a rising US dollar.

Ministry of Finance data was also unhelpful for the yen when it showed outbound investment in the bond market rising to 1.32 trillion yen ($8.4 billion) in the week ending June 1, from 310 billion yen previously.

Foreign investment in Japanese stocks was also reported higher after rising to 282 billion yen, from 82.4 billion yen previously.