BOJ remains on monetary policy unchanged

BOJ kept its current monetary policy unchanged, as expected, by a seven-to-two majority vote during its meeting on January 21, and the most prominent points of the monetary policy statement came as follows:
• The interest is kept in the negative range at -0.10%.
• The bank still controls the 10-year yield curve at zero levels, but it may change within this range up and down based on economic activity.
• The bank maintained its government bond purchase program at an annual pace of 80 trillion yen.
• The bank maintained a program to purchase funds traded in financial markets and real estate investment funds at 6 trillion and 90 billion yen.
For individual and corporate bonds, the bank will hold their outstanding amounts in about 2.2 trillion yen and about 3.2 trillion yen, respectively.
• The bank will continue the current monetary policy until the inflation target is reached at 2% for the longest possible period.
• The bank will take appropriate measures if conditions warrant it.
• The bank is expected to keep interest for the medium and long term at low levels for a longer period of time.
• The current monetary policy is more appropriate to the situation.
• There are still downside risks to the economy.
• The bank will not hesitate to take any new expansion measures.