The yen's lunge higher led a senior Japanese finance ministry official to warn the move had been one-sided and that the ministry would take steps in the market as needed. Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda also repeated that the central bank would ease policy further if needed, but the market seems to doubt he can do much more. Traders said being short of yen had been a very heavily favored trade early in the year and the currency's surge was squeezing many investors out of those positions.

The dollar was also soft on its own account as minutes from the latest Federal Reserve meeting showed many participants wanted to move cautiously on rate hikes. The drop in the dollar added to gains in oil which jumped 5 percent overnight as U.S. inventories unexpectedly fell and investors gauged the possibility of an output freeze.

Aiding risk sentiment were the Fed minutes which showed many members reluctant to hike further in the face of global uncertainty, a point underlined by Dallas Fed President Robert Kaplan in a speech late on Wednesday.

EUR/USD: during the Asian session the pair traded in the range of $1.1395-15

GBP/USD: during the Asian session the pair traded in the range of $1.4105-40

USD/JPY: during the Asian session the pair dropped to Y109.00

Based on Reuters materials