[PRESS CONFERENCE] BoJ Governor Ueda says government measures and accommodative monetary conditions are expected to firmly support the economy

• Medium- to long-term inflation expectations are around 2%.

• Japan's economy is expected to continue growing moderately.

Post-decision press conference language of this kind is the BoJ's standard instrument for steering expectations between meetings, and the operative question is always whether the wording has shifted relative to the prior statement, not the level of the commentary itself. Asserting that medium- to long-term inflation expectations sit around 2% is the framework the bank has historically used to justify continued normalisation: when that anchoring language is paired with confidence that accommodative conditions and fiscal support will underwrite growth, past episodes have tended to precede further steps rather than mark a pause. The distinction worth drawing is between rhetoric that merely describes the economy and rhetoric that pre-commits; this sits in the former category, so the transmission runs through how the rates market reads the gap between the guidance and the next data points, chiefly wage settlements and the services inflation prints. The reference to government measures signals coordination with fiscal policy, a pattern that in previous cycles has made the bank more comfortable tightening into support rather than against headwinds. Worth watching is whether board members' subsequent speeches and the summary of opinions echo the same confidence or introduce conditionality, since divergence there has historically been the tell for timing. As boilerplate at a press conference rather than a decision, the signal is incremental.