BOJ Nominee Iwata Adds to Calls for Buying Longer-Term Bonds

The Bank of Japan should buy longer-term bonds to help it achieve a 2 percent inflation target, said Kikuo Iwata, one of the government’s nominees for central bank deputy governor.

“The BOJ has a responsibility to quickly achieve the 2 percent target,” Iwata, 70, said today at a confirmation hearing in Parliament in Tokyo. “At the moment the BOJ only buys debt maturing up to three years; it should buy five years and longer.”