Bank of Japan governor Haruhiko Kuroda ’s shock-and-awe stimulus, launched in April 2013, fizzled after a short-lived spurt of growth and rising prices. He said in a series of speeches last year that an entrenched “deflationary mind-set” stifled hope that wages or prices will rise, limiting the impact of monetary policies such as negative rates. In the 11-months after Japan’s rates went negative last year, Japan Finance Corp.’s loan portfolio shrank. Uniqlo founder Tadashi Yanai blames negative rates and other central bank policies, such as quantitative easing, for worrying consumers. “They have to stop negative rates.

Source: Wall Street Journal February 26, 2017 18:58 UTC