Japan
Japan faces fourth year of falling prices
JAPAN - Japan is on track to enter its fourth consecutive year of deflation - a phenomenon not seen in any postwar industrialised country - as the country's core consumer price index tumbled for the 36th consecutive month in September.
Takenaka apology leaves bank reform in turmoil
JAPAN - Confusion over Japan's proposed banking reform deepened yesterday as Heizo Takenaka, this month empowered by Junichiro Koizumi, the prime minister, to clean up the financial system, apologised to parliament for remarks suggesting that no company…
Takenaka faces no-confidence vote in Japan
JAPAN - Heizo Takenaka, Japan's embattled economic czar, will today face a parliamentary vote of no confidence as the opposition tries to exploit a clash within the ruling Liberal Democratic party over how to tackle the country's banking crisis.
Hayami pans adoption of inflation target for Japan
JAPAN - Bank of Japan Gov. Masaru Hayami on Thursday rejected the notion of adopting an inflation target as a means of helping to raise prices and fight deflation. "There is no data to support the procedure and the way to achieve it," Hayami told a…
ECB Working Paper Series
RESEARCH - 'Monetary policy and the zero bound to interest rates: a review', by Tony Yates, October 2002. The paper reviews the literature on what the zero bound to nominal interest rates implies for the conduct of monetary policy. A situation familiar…
Tokyo abandons unveiling of bad loans plan
JAPAN - Heizo Takenaka, economy minister and chief bank regulator, was forced to postpone the unveiling of his plan to deal with Japan's bad loans raising suspicions that the ruling Liberal Democratic party has big disagreements with his proposals.
Bank of Japan Monthly Report, October 2002
REPORT - The Bank of Japan published its Monthly Report of Recent Economic and Financial Developments, October 2002, on 16 October. In its report the Bank says that Japan's economy has stabilised as a whole, but clear signs of recovery have not yet been…
BOJ should create inflation to fight deflation
INTERVIEW - The best way to fight deflation is to create inflation, according to Kikuo Iwata, professor at Gakushuin University, who suggests the Bank of Japan set an inflation target of 1 to 3 percent for the next 12 months.
Japan already has its very own Greenspan
ARTICLE - "Japan needs an Alan Greenspan," some Japanese intellectuals recently demanded, and then went on to debate who the nation's own Greenspan might be. Given the country's dire economic straits, it is understandable that Japanese eyes are being…
Japan's Koizumi vows 'bold' action on economy
JAPAN - Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi vowed Friday to take "bold" action to pull Japan's economy out of its slump and stressed the importance of dialogue to resolve concerns over North Korea's nuclear weapons program.
Bank of Japan Stock Purchase Guidelines
GUIDELINES - At a regular board meeting held 11 October, the Policy Board of the Bank of Japan approved basic guidelines on the purchase of stocks held by commercial banks.
Bank of Japan Stock Purchase
REPORT - The Outline of the Stock Purchasing Plan, 11 October.
Bank of Japan report on non-performing loans
REPORT - Japan's Non-Performing Loan Problem, 11 October.
Inflation target an option but not now - Hayami
JAPAN - Bank of Japan Governor Masaru Hayami said on Wednesday that the central bank may consider an inflation-targeting policy in the future but not at the moment as Japanese prices continue to fall.
Tokyo urged to improve corporate governance
JAPAN - Japan's banks will never recover their health unless they undergo a drastic improvement in corporate governance similar to that imposed on South Korean financial institutions after the 1997 financial crisis, according to a Standard & Poor's…
Hayami says BOJ has more policy options
JAPAN - Bank of Japan Governor Masaru Hayami said on Tuesday the BOJ had more policy options up its sleeve to fight deflation, suggesting more unconventional steps are being considered to dig the economy out of its rut.
CentralBankNet Monday Special Feature
SPECIAL FEATURE - In this weeks special feature CentralBankNet looks at the issue of Japan's Non-Performing Loan Problem and the shock decision by the Bank of Japan to start buying shares. On Friday the BOJ published both an outline to its stock purchase…
Japan 'has drafted' anti-deflation package
JAPAN - The Japanese government has drawn up the outline of an anti-deflation package and will finalise the draft towards the end of the month, the Sankei Shimbun newspaper reported on Sunday.
BoJ to buy $16bn of banks' shareholdings
JAPAN - The Bank of Japan on Friday said it would buy yen 2,000bn ($16.5bn) of banks' shareholdings to make them less vulnerable to stock market swings.
Takenaka calls on BoJ to help fight deflation
JAPAN - Heizo Takenaka, Japan's economy minister and the new head of the Financial Services Agency, on Wednesday called on the Bank of Japan to co-operate with the government on tackling deflation.
Anti-deflation drive sparks BOJ fear over autonomy
ARTICLE - The central bank gets the jitters now that finance chief Takenaka takes up its challenge on economy. The Bank of Japan is worried that the government's latest campaign to stamp out deflation and buoy the economy will compromise its autonomy.
Nikkei plunges on Takenaka's remarks
JAPAN - Stocks hit their lowest level since 1983 after Japan's finance minister said no bank is too big to fail. Investors, fearing a wave of corporate bankruptcies under the government's bad-loan solution, drove Tokyo share prices to another 19-year low…
BOJ's Hayami- Utmost being done on monetary policy
JAPAN - Governor of the Bank of Japan Masaru Hayami said on Monday that the central bank is doing its utmost to ease credit conditions.
Bank of Japan Discussion Paper
RESEARCH - 'Monetary and Fiscal Policy in the European Monetary Union' by Juergen von Hagen and Matthias Brueckner - The introductory phase of the European Monetary Union ended with the emission of euro currency in 2002. This paper presents a review of…