Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda said there is no limit to measures for monetary policy easing and it is open to expand asset purchases further, if necessary.

"If we judge that existing measures in the toolkit are not enough to achieve the goal, what we have to do is to devise new tools, rather than give up the goal," Kuroda said in a speech in Tokyo.

In January, the bank surprised the markets by introducing negative interest rate.

Kuroda said the "zero lower bound" of interest rate was believed to be impossible to conquer, but it has been almost overcome by the wisdom and practices of central banks.

If judged necessary, there is ample room for the BoJ to further expand the size of asset purchases, the banker said.

At the December meeting, the policy board debated over the supplementary measures for quantitative and qualitative easing.

Some members said the bank should facilitate smoother asset purchases and dispel concerns about the sustainability of the programme by taking appropriate measures, the minutes of the monetary policy meeting held on December 17 and 18 showed today.

A few members said the extension of maturity period of Japanese government bonds would ensure flexible and smooth conduct of JGB purchases into the future.

But few other members noted that such an extension could decrease the stability of the JGB purchase and prolong the period required for normalization of monetary policy.

The remaining maturity of JGB purchases was extended by a 6-3 majority vote.

The board had decided by a vote of 6-3 majority to introduce a new program for purchases of exchange-traded funds at an annual pace of about JPY 300 billion.

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