On April 28, the Bank of Japan decided to keep its policy interest rate unchanged, but there was clear internal disagreement. Marcel Thieliant, Head of Asia Economics at Capital Economics, noted that although this time the decision was to stand pat, the wording of the outlook report was hawkish, so he still maintains the forecast that the Bank of Japan will raise interest rates in June.

Key signal: The vote among the policy committee members was 6:3, with three members (Takada Hajime, Tamura Naoki, Nakagawa Junko) calling for an immediate rate hike. This is the largest internal dissent since Japan implemented its negative interest rate policy in 2016, showing that pressure to tighten monetary policy is building. Notably, Nakagawa Junko joined the hawkish camp for the first time, further reinforcing expectations for tighter policy. $BTC $GT $ETH