Bank Of Japan

A top executive of Japan's scandal-plagued central bank hanged himself today, the fourth in a recent series of suicides by government bureaucrats, police said. Bank of Japan Chief Director Takayuki Kamoshida, 58, was found by his wife around 3 a.m. hanging from a cord in an apartment. Kamoshida was in charge of efforts to root out corruption at the bank and to punish employees involved in bribery scandals, national broadcaster NHK said. "I'm tired.

WASHINGTON - In unveiling a new stimulus plan, Japan's central bank for the first time set an ambitious inflation target aimed at breaking the nation out of its long deflationary trap and economic stagnation. But many analysts and investors were disappointed with Tuesday's action. They said the moves by the Bank of Japan, in response to relentless nagging by Japan's new prime minister to be more aggressive, fell far short of what was needed to put the world's third-largest economy on a path of sustained growth - offering little hope that Japan would provide a boost to the fragile global economy any time soon.

Japan's central bank said Wednesday that it is considering buying shares from the country's struggling banks as part of a radical plan to stabilize the financial system and help the banks get rid of massive debt from bad loans. The news helped spark a major rally in Japanese stocks today, driving the Nikkei-225 index up 360.42 points, or 3.8%, to 9,832.48 in afternoon trading. The yen rallied against the dollar.

TOKYO — Bowing to government pressure, Japan's central bank Tuesday pledged more aggressive action to boost the economy, including setting a 2% inflation target. The Bank of Japan said it would conduct "open-ended" asset purchases to help achieve the goal of breaking out of a long spell of deflation. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe had urged the central bank to ease monetary policy further to help the recession-struck economy escape from years of falling prices. Whether the effort will succeed remains to be seen: the central bank has not achieved even its 1% inflation target, with price increases hovering below 0.5% for the past two years despite surges in energy costs.

The flow of capital in Japan declined last year for the first time in several years, the Bank of Japan said. Caution in lending by financial institutions was one reason for the turnaround in the flow of capital. Another was a slowdown in asset-price growth resulting from the Bank of Japan's tight grip on credit.

The Bank of Japan raised interest rates for the first time in 10 years, rejecting an unprecedented request from the government for a delay and ending its 18-month experiment with virtually free money. In a declaration of independence, the central bank's Policy Board voted by an undisclosed majority to raise its overnight rate target to 0.25% from virtually zero.

The Bank of Japan kept its key interest rate unchanged at 0.25% today, reflecting caution among central bankers and raising questions as to whether the bank had bowed to pressure from the government. Prominent Japanese media, in the run-up to the meeting, had reported that the bank was unlikely to raise rates. Prior to those reports, investors had been braced for a tightening. The Bank of Japan has been in a quandary.

Japan's Central Bank to Cut Key Interest Rate: The Bank of Japan plans to cut its discount rate to a record low in an effort to perk up the economy, the semi-governmental Japan Broadcasting Corp. (NHK) reported. NHK said the Bank of Japan will lower the discount rate, charged on loans to commercial banks, from 2.5% to 2.0%. It would be the seventh such cut since July 1991.

Japan's central bank announced today that it will cut its official discount rate to 4.5% from 5.0%, effective immediately. The decision was made at a meeting of the Bank of Japan's special policy-making board, officials said. Today's cut in the key lending rate, the rate the central bank charges on loans to commercial banks, comes less than two months after another half-percentage-point reduction on Nov. 14.

Japanese stocks rallied and the yen fell today, despite the Bank of Japan's first interest rate increase since July. The Nikkei-225 stock index was up 1% to 18,087.84 at midday, after topping 18,000 for the first time in nearly seven years. The yen slid to 120.88 per dollar in New York on Wednesday from 120.22 on Tuesday. Today in Tokyo, the yen fell to 121.01. Analysts said markets were betting that policymakers would take a long time to meaningfully lift rates. Bank of Japan Gov.

Japanese stocks rallied and the yen fell today, despite the Bank of Japan's first interest rate increase since July. The Nikkei-225 stock index was up 1% to 18,087.84 at midday, after topping 18,000 for the first time in nearly seven years. The yen slid to 120.88 per dollar in New York on Wednesday from 120.22 on Tuesday. Today in Tokyo, the yen fell to 121.01. Analysts said markets were betting that policymakers would take a long time to meaningfully lift rates. Bank of Japan Gov.

The Bank of Japan kept its key interest rate unchanged at 0.25% today, reflecting caution among central bankers and raising questions as to whether the bank had bowed to pressure from the government. Prominent Japanese media, in the run-up to the meeting, had reported that the bank was unlikely to raise rates. Prior to those reports, investors had been braced for a tightening. The Bank of Japan has been in a quandary.

The days of interest-free money in Japan are over. Defying warnings from some politicians and economists, Japan's central bank Friday raised a key short-term interest rate for the first time in six years, to 0.25% from virtually zero. The historic policy shift reflects Japan's emergence from a long slump in which extraordinarily low rates were used to prop up a stagnant economy and troubled banking system.

There are still a few people in Japan warning against an end to the days of interest-free money. The country's finance minister, for one. But across the spectrum of economists and monetary policymakers here, there is an almost unanimous chorus predicting the time is up for Japan's six-year experiment of offering money for short-term loans at 0%. The Bank of Japan's nine governors will begin a two-day policy meeting Thursday during which they are expected to raise the key interest rate to 0.25%.

The Bank of Japan will raise a key interest rate to 0.25% from zero next week, a news report said Tuesday, amid conflicting signals from government officials about the wisdom of such a move. The bank has "decided in principle" to raise the rate by a quarter-point -- the first hike in almost six years -- at a two-day policy meeting that starts July 13, Kyodo News agency reported, citing unidentified sources.

Japan's central bank said Wednesday that it is considering buying shares from the country's struggling banks as part of a radical plan to stabilize the financial system and help the banks get rid of massive debt from bad loans. The news helped spark a major rally in Japanese stocks today, driving the Nikkei-225 index up 360.42 points, or 3.8%, to 9,832.48 in afternoon trading. The yen rallied against the dollar.

The Bank of Japan will probably keep policy unchanged at a two-day board meeting starting Tuesday and pledge to keep flooding the money market with trillions of yen, analysts said. Nine of 13 economists, strategists and currency traders polled by Bloomberg News expect central bank governor Masaru Hayami and his eight policy board colleagues to stand pat at this year's final board meeting. Reports released this month show the world's No.

The Bank of Japan issued an economic growth forecast that was far more optimistic than that of the government, raising speculation that bureaucrats may be keeping expectations low for their own political gain. Economists said the central bank's estimate of 1.9% to 2.3% gross domestic product growth was more realistic than the Economic Planning Agency's prediction of 1.5%.