A lawmaker who has advised Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on economic policy said he will urge the government to enshrine its inflation-targeting agreements with the Bank of Japan in law as early as next year.
Kozo Yamamoto's comments come as the central bank is said to be considering lowering its inflation forecast for the year through March 2016 further below the 2 percent goal agreed with the government in 2013. It would be desirable to have a new BOJ bill ready by the end of the year for submission to the Diet in 2016, Yamamoto, who heads an economics advisory group in the Liberal Democratic Party, said in an interview on Monday in Tokyo.
While the government and central bank agreed in January 2013 to set a 2 percent inflation target and Gov. Haruhiko Kuroda then embarked on unprecedented monetary easing, the target is not laid out in the current BOJ law.