Shigeta Kazuo is more confident in achieving the price target, indicating that a further interest rate hike is possible next year.

The Governor of the Bank of Japan, Haruhiko Kuroda, expressed increasing confidence that the bank is closer to achieving its sustainable inflation target, hinting at the possibility of further interest rate hikes next year. "With wage growth, the 2% price stability target is steadily approaching realization," Kuroda said at a meeting hosted by the Japan Business Federation on Thursday. "In recent years, there has been significant changes in the behavior of companies in setting wages and prices against the backdrop of a tightening labor market." This may be Kuroda's last public speech of the year, reinforcing investors' expectations that the rate hike cycle is not yet over despite the Bank of Japan raising borrowing costs to their highest level since 1995 last Friday. Traders are looking for clues about the timing of the next rate hike, and Kuroda's tone was slightly hawkish compared to the press conference after last week's policy decision.