Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba sought to show he isn’t pressuring the Bank of Japan over interest rate policy, saying that he was aligned with BOJ Governor Kazuo Ueda’s view that there was time to assess the situation in markets and the economy before making any changes to rates.

Ishiba, who was officially appointed as prime minister on Tuesday, had been seen by markets as endorsing the BOJ's policy normalisation, in part because of his comments to Reuters in August that a gradual hike in ultra-low rates will help boost Japan's profitability.

Japan's newly appointed economy minister, Ryosei Akazawa, said on Wednesday that it's not necessarily true that Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba is positive about further interest rate hikes by the Bank of Japan (BOJ).

Japan’s Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba doesn’t actively support interest rate hikes from the Bank of Japan, the country’s economic revitalization minister said, underscoring the government’s stance against premature increases in borrowing costs.

The Bank of Japan should weigh any additional interest-rate increases carefully in order to avoid the risk of cooling the economy too much, the country’s new economics minister said.

Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba Rules Out Japan Interest Rate Hike. Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba indicated that Japan is not currently in an environment for an additional interest