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The Bank of Japan announced it was treading into a completely new form of monetary policy Wednesday, in what was a tacit admission that radical efforts such as hundreds of billions in bond buying and negative interest rates were not enough to save the Japanese economy from stagnation.

Wednesday’s announcement had echoes of the 2012 announcement by European Central Bank head Mario Draghi, who declared he was “ready to do whatever it takes” to maintain the integrity of the eurozone monetary union. BoJ Governor Haruhiko Kuroda made it clear that he too is willing to take whatever steps are necessary to push the Japanese economy into growth and finally rid the country from the scourge of deflation.

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The BoJ’s new policy measures will include what is being called yield curve control, which aims to keep the Japanese 10-year bond at zero per cent. The policy is seen as a way to keep long-dated debt in Japan at zero or higher, while keeping shorter-dated debt at negative interest rates.