, Columnist
Japan's Central Bank Experiments at the Wrong Time
The central bank should have made its latest changes contingent on the government adopting more economic reforms.
A happy banker.
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On Wednesday, the once-conservative Bank of Japan delivered an uncharacteristic policy surprise with its plan to target certain interest rates. I suspect that, at this stage, the central bank would have been much better off sticking to something closer to its traditional caution.
Historically, the Bank of Japan hasn't been at the forefront of experimental monetary policy. This was the case under Masaaki Shirakawa, the prior governor, who resisted being pulled into aggressive innovation and instead tried to shift the burden to other policy-makers with tools better suited to the tasks at hand.