The low to high trading range is only 16 pips
The USDJPY trading range is only 16 pips. At the high, there is a ceiling around the 109.63 area. Going back to yesterday on the hourly chart, there are a number of swing highs near that level. Stay below keeps the intraday sellers happy. That is a risk level for shorts.
Also helping the sellers is that the high price from yesterday could not extend above the high price from last Friday nor the swing high prices from early in December. Those levels came in at 109.70 and 109.723. The high price from yesterday could only extend up to 109.672. Finally the price move below and upward sloping trendline. That may also be tilting the bias a little more to the downside.
The low for the day reach 109.50. A break below that level would have traders looking toward the 109.39 level and then the rising 100 hour moving average at 109.251 (blue line in the chart above)