Nissan Motor has been hurt less by the yen's strength than other companies, thanks to its strategy of producing cars for the U.S. market locally, Chief Executive Carlos Ghosn said on Friday.

We have a strategy for many years limiting the level of exports from Japan, particularly to the United States ... We set ourselves a target that more than 80 percent of cars sold in the U.S. should be assembled in North America, Ghosn told Reuters on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum.

That means we lost some opportunities when the yen was weak but you obviously are limiting a lot of damage when the yen is stronger. In a certain way the effect on our business ... is more limited than some of other exporters which are present in Japan. That means we have to be producing assembling, sourcing more locally.

The yen hit a 2-1/2 year high against the dollar earlier this week.

(Reporting by Natsuko Waki; editing by David Stamp)

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