BoJ Deputy Governor Himino says won't comment on market expectations regarding BoJ rate hike moves, adds BOJ will look at likelihood of its scenario and risks including Middle East conflict, AI demand, FX impact, in determining pace and timing of hikes

• We believe we can stabilise underlying inflation at 2% with appropriate policy moves.
• We will debate at each meeting desirable pace and timing of rate hikes to stabilise underlying inflation around 2%.

Refusals to comment on market pricing are standard central-bank boilerplate and carry no signal in themselves; the information content here sits in the enumerated risk list, where the inclusion of FX alongside external demand risks is the tell, since yen depreciation has historically been the channel that pulls BoJ tightening forward when imported price pressure threatens to overshoot. Language committing to debate pace and timing 'at each meeting' is the familiar formulation used to keep optionality alive without pre-committing, and in past hiking cycles of this kind it has tended to precede gradual, data-contingent moves rather than a fixed path, leaving the front end of the JGB curve and front-month yen sensitive to each subsequent board member speech. The distinction worth drawing is between the stability of the underlying inflation scenario and the risks around it: the deputy governor's confidence on the former is consistent with continued normalisation, while the latter is what governs timing. Follow-ons that have mattered in comparable sequences are the board's median stance as revealed through other officials' remarks, the pace of yen moves against the dollar, and whether wage and services-price data keep the underlying scenario intact. As commentary rather than a decision, the signal is directional only.