Quiet critic of Bank of Japan’s 'monetary shamanism' turns up the volume

TOKYO: Izuru Kato is a soft-spoken and bookish economist, but his dismissal of the Bank of Japan's stimulus policy as "monetary shamanism" is ringing loud in the ears of bank Governor Haruhiko Kuroda.

Kuroda's policy of quantitative and qualitative easing (QQE) increases the money the bank supplies to the financial system by buying high-quality assets. It is aimed at lowering real interest rates, pushing up inflation and stimulating private demand to revive an economy that has stagnated for two decades.