TOKYO — Bank of Japan Governor Kazuo Ueda has begun personally jogging between the floors of the central bank's headquarters to announce each successive interest-rate increase, converting the institution's monetary policy into a vertical endurance event that staff now call «the Ueda circuit».
Under the new regime, every rate decision is delivered in person on a different floor, with the governor climbing the stairwell at a pace that has forced the bank's policy board to follow him in a loose column, reading out updated lending figures between landings. «We found that a rate rise announced while stationary lacks conviction,» a senior bank official said. «The governor now takes the stairs two at a time, and the market takes the hint.»
Commercial lenders have scrambled to keep pace. Branches across the country have installed stair-climbing tellers, and mortgage officers now conduct loan interviews while walking briskly up and down the corridor, pausing only to revise the rate aloud. One regional bank has repainted its floors with distance markers so customers can see how much further the cost of borrowing has travelled since the previous quarter.
By the end of the week, the bank's headquarters had run out of floors, and officials confirmed that the governor had taken to circling the roof terrace at dawn, announcing further increases to a small group of exhausted economists holding clipboards. Asked when the climbing would stop, the official said the bank would continue until the stairs themselves were satisfied, then corrected himself and said the bank would simply build more stairs.