Bank of Japan board member Asahi Noguchi said on Thursday the central bank must keep interest rates ultra-low as the country has yet to achieve the bank's 2% inflation target in a sustainable fashion.

Asian equities jumped on Thursday, while the dollar slid as investors poured into risky assets after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell opened the door to a slowdown in the pace of monetary tightening.

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell on Wednesday said it was time to slow the pace of coming interest rate hikes while also signaling a protracted economic adjustment to a world where borrowing costs will remain high, inflation comes down slowly and the United States remains chronically short of workers.

Japan's manufacturing activity contracted for the first time in nearly two years in November, a private survey showed, as a slump in demand and output deepened driven largely by a slowdown in the global economy and still-elevated inflationary pressures.

The dollar tumbled to a three-month low versus the yen on Thursday as traders focused on comments by Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell that interest rate hikes could be scaled back "as soon as December."

U.S. private payrolls increased far less than expected in November, suggesting demand for labor was cooling amid high interest rates, a survey showed on Wednesday.