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Ueda's BOJ Subtly Changes English Translation in New Era Signal

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At Ueda’s first policy meeting last month, board members discussed “patiently” maintaining easing, according to a summary of opinions released by the central bank Thursday. 

“Patiently” implies waiting for a condition to be fulfilled and contrasts with the previous wording of “persistently” keeping up with easing, a word that was used up until the March meeting, when the BOJ was still led by Ueda’s predecessor Haruhiko Kuroda.

Given that the original Japanese word remained unchanged, the change in English doesn’t suggest a major shift. It does however hint at Ueda’s intention of signaling a gradual move away from the Kuroda era. Some economists suggest that the change acknowledges a shift in Japan’s economic reality. 



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BOJ's Ueda Gains Flexibility After Scrapping Guidance on Rates

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The central bank also called for a long-term review of its policies and issued new price forecasts that show inflation below 2% again in the fiscal year ending March 2026. 

The decision to keep stimulus in place in pursuit of stronger inflation keeps the BOJ in a very different place to its price-fighting global peers for now. 

While the wave of policy tightening around the world to weaken inflation appears close to peaking, the Federal Reserve still looks set to push up borrowing costs further when it meets next week.

That possibility still seems a long way off for the BOJ, given a reiterated commitment in Friday’s statement to continue easing with yield curve control.  Still, Ueda later clarified that policy could be changed including a normalization during the review process.

“We’re not starting the review with the aim of normalizing,” Ueda said. “But it’s not zero chance we begin normalizing during the review period.”

For now, the risk of a premature tightening move stopping the BOJ from achieving its price target is greater than the cost of a delayed move, he said.

 



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Bond Markets Brace for Billion Dollar Question From Japan

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Market watchers are bracing for volatility, should Japanese investors increase their sales of foreign securities and bring some of that cash home. Dai-ichi Life Holdings Inc., a life insurer with one of Japan’s largest institutional portfolios, said last month that it’s shifting more money to domestic bonds from US Treasuries and other foreign securities.

Some strategists expect the insurers to stay focused on domestic bonds, particularly longer-dated ones, with hedging costs for foreign investment still at elevated levels. Others see the potential for the overseas outflows to reverse, with the Federal Reserve expected to moderate the pace of its rate hikes and new BOJ governor Kazuo Ueda seen eventually tweaking policy.

Mizuho Securities Co. Chief Desk Strategist Shoki Omori expects life insurers to stay focused on domestic debt partly because they need to hold an additional ¥35 trillion of long-maturity Japanese government bonds to meet asset-liability management requirements by April 2025, when a new solvency regime will be implemented. In addition, controlling currency risk is too expensive now.

“They will continue to be cautious on overseas bonds as they see high grade bonds including sovereigns such as Treasuries being too rich on both a hedged and unhedged basis,” Tokyo-based Omori said. “Hedging costs are too high at around 5% and the dollar-yen is too high to go outright at current levels.”



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Kuroda Departs Leaving $11.7 Trillion Experiment to Successor

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“Kuroda will be recognized as having been an outstanding central bank governor who has been quite innovative,” former International Monetary Fund chief economist Kenneth Rogoff said. “The BOJ under Kuroda has forcefully adopted more or less every idea there is for raising inflation expectations, but until recently, to no avail.”

At Kuroda’s last Group of 20 meeting in Bengaluru, India, in late February, central bankers and finance ministers from across the globe rose to their feet to applaud the ever-smiling governor. European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde was one of the first to clap, according to people familiar with the matter.

“Haruhiko Kuroda is a master of his trade. He steered the monetary policy of Japan through challenging times. These are big shoes to fill for any successor – and times are certainly not getting any easier,” said Swiss National Bank President Thomas Jordan. “It was always a pleasure to have in-depth discussions with him over dinner, ranging from culture to economics to politics.”



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BOJ Jolts Financial Markets But Risk of a Bigger Shock Remains

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The Bank of Japan’s decision to keep its settings unchanged Wednesday gave global investors a modest jolt, leaving markets from the yen to Treasuries at risk from a potentially larger shock if officials opt to shift policy in the future.

Standing pat caught some traders by surprise, but it’s unlikely to douse speculation that the BOJ will normalize policy as inflation in Japan accelerates and Governor Haruhiko Kuroda nears the end of his term. It suggests just a temporary setback to bets on a stronger yen and a bond selloff as analysts say it’s still a question of when — not if — the central bank exits its yield-curve control policy.

Indeed, while Japan’s currency at one stage slumped more than 2% against the dollar in the wake of the decision, it clawed back some ground as the session proceeded, helped by a swath of US economic data that dented the greenback. Japanese government bonds surged as traders covered short positions and stocks pushed higher. US Treasury yields declined.



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BOJ Opens 'Pandora's Box' for Traders on Alert for Another Shock

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Investors are on high alert for further policy tweaks from the Bank of Japan this week after December’s shock decision to raise the bar on yield movements failed to significantly improve market liquidity.

While almost all economists surveyed by Bloomberg expect no change at the two-day meeting finishing Wednesday as their main scenario, market pressure on the central bank’s stimulus framework has intensified since last month’s efforts to ease the side effects of policy.

Another increase in the ceiling for the 10-year yield is seen as the most likely course of action, should the BOJ act, given its recent emphasis on improving bond-market functioning. 



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Bank of Japan Decision Will Affect the World

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The BOJ has been the last holdout on negative rates, so these tentative signs that it might be buckling will heighten expectations we may be in for more unsettling volatility in 2023. Markets really don't like uncertainty, and even a suggestion that Japan might be forced into letting bond yields soar higher is enough to get risk managers heading for the exit. Fixed income isn’t quite the haven some commentators had convinced themselves it might be in the new year.

BOJ Governor Haruhiko Kuroda was at pains to downplay any implications for official rates, but this sudden move after implacable denials speaks louder. The BOJ did increase its QE bond buying ammunition to 9 trillion yen ($68 billion) per month from 7.3 trillion yen — all to defend its new line in the sand, the 0.5% 10-year yield. But this is merely a symbolic delaying tactic. Kuroda steps down in April, so Tuesday’s decision increases the expectation that his replacement will usher in further monetary tightening. This is no longer an impenetrable negative interest rate fortress. It might make foreign speculators meditate on the perils of shorting both Japanese government bonds and the yen simultaneously.



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Yen Traders' Nerves Jangle on Growing Signs of BOJ Hawkish Pivot

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The yen whipsawed in Monday trade after reports on a potential change to a key agreement between the government and central bank fueled speculation policy makers are moving closer to a hawkish pivot. 

Japan’s currency jumped as much as 0.6% after Kyodo said on Saturday that Prime Minister Fumio Kishida may seek to revise a decade-old accord with the Bank of Japan and consider adding flexibility to the 2% inflation goal, potentially paving the way for an end to its ultra-dovish policy. The yen pared gains after a top government spokesman denied the report.

The existing agreement commits the government and the BOJ to achieving its 2% inflation goal as early as possible. 

The BOJ has long since missed Kuroda’s original timeline of around two years. Still, removal of the phrase would go a step further in recognizing that achieving stable inflation is a longer term goal while implying that factors other than time also need to be considered.



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Yen Weakens as BOJ Sticks With Ultra-Low Rates Policy Path

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In September, a sharp slide in the yen following the policy statement and dovish comments by Kuroda prompted Finance Minister Shunichi Suzuki to order Japan’s first entry into markets to prop up the currency in 24 years. While the governor moved the market again during Friday’s briefing, his tone was more cautious and his remarks weren’t preceded by falls in the currency like the previous month. 

Kuroda continues to hold firm as the last anchor of low global rates just a day after the European Central Bank went ahead with another jumbo rate hike. But the governor is walking on a tightrope as his stance risks putting further downward pressure on the yen despite billions of dollars spent by the government to support the currency.  

“The likelihood of the BOJ pivoting toward tightening is still small as Japan’s inflation is not broad based at all and is only rising about a third of the pace seen in Europe and US,” said Kyohei Morita, chief Japan economist at Nomura Securities.



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Japan Intervenes to Support Yen for the First Time Since 1998

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“The government is concerned about excessive moves in the foreign exchange markets, and we took decisive action just now,” Kanda said late afternoon. “We’re seeing speculative moves behind the current sudden and one-sided moves in the foreign exchange market.”

The intervention, ordered up by the Ministry of Finance, comes with risks if it fails to scare off speculators. Hedge funds have been adding to bearish bets on the currency, with Goldman Sachs Group Inc. warning it may decline all the way to 155.

“At best, their action can help to slow the pace of yen depreciation,” said Christopher Wong, a currency strategist at Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp. “The move alone is not likely to alter the underlying trend unless the dollar, US Treasury yields turn lower or the BOJ tweaks its monetary policy.”

BOJ Governor Haruhiko Kuroda insisted at a briefing in the Tokyo afternoon there were no rate hikes in the works and guidance on future policy would not be change for the time being, even for as long as two or three years in principle. Still, his influence over policy will fade next April when he steps down.

“Today’s outcome strengthens my view that the chance of policy change is almost zero under Kuroda’s governorship,” said Masamichi Adachi, chief Japan economist at UBS Securities.

Kuroda’s stance sets him apart from other central banks that had also previously had negative rates, with the European Central Bank and the Swiss National Bank all hiking to deal with surging inflation.



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