On June 3, in his final routine speech before a highly anticipated policy meeting scheduled soon, Kazuo Ueda, Governor of the Bank of Japan, said that the Bank of Japan needs to continue raising interest rates based on economic conditions and inflation. Ueda said, “For example, if the central bank judges that the probability of achieving the baseline scenario will increase—that is, if tensions in the Middle East gradually ease, and with moderate economic growth, core inflation will gradually return to around 2%—then I believe the central bank will continue to raise the policy interest rate at an appropriate pace.” His remarks indicate that the likelihood of a rate hike this month is relatively high, but his wording is not as clear as it was during the previous two rate hikes. This suggests that Ueda wants to maintain some flexibility in a situation where the Middle East situation is becoming increasingly complex and uncertainty is intensifying, as well as amid Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Takaichi’s stance on monetary policy.