Academics, execs urge BOJ to switch to longer-term inflation target

The Bank of Japan’s 2 percent inflation target should be redefined as a “long-term” one to give its monetary policy more flexibility, a panel of scholars and corporate executives said Monday, calling for a review of a decade-old joint statement between the central bank and the government underpinning the goal.

The panel also stressed the need for a “normalization” of bond markets where the BOJ has commanded a huge presence by buying government bonds to keep bond yields extremely low to support the economy, even though the central bank has recently begun allowing 10-year bond yields to trade mo...