Gearoid Reidy, Columnist

Ueda’s Big Day Was Lost in a Communication Black Hole

The Bank of Japan’s momentous decision to raise rates — and its pledge to keep hiking — took too long to cut through.

July 31, 2024 at 10:45 AM UTC

Corrected

July 31, 2024 at 1:12 PM UTC

Gearoid Reidy is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering Japan and the Koreas. He previously led the breaking news team in North Asia, and was the Tokyo deputy bureau chief.

Still stuck in the past.
Photographer: Akio Kon/Bloomberg

Provide news feedback or report an error

Site feedback:

Take our Survey

This article is for subscribers only.

An ancient Zen Buddhist koan asks, if the Bank of Japan hikes interest rates but nobody is able to read the statement that says so, has monetary policy actually been tightened?

For a few moments as the momentous BOJ decision approached on Wednesday, that seemed to be the terrifying prospect as armies of traders, analysts and journalists across the globe went to the bank’s website, only to be greeted with the message: “The page you requested is temporarily unavailable due to network congestion or other issues. Please try again later.”