The Bank of Japan announced on Tuesday its most determined effort yet to end years of economic stagnation, saying it would switch to an open-ended commitment to buying assets next year and double its inflation target to 2 percent, Reuters reported. It issued a joint statement with the government promising to reach the inflation goal "at the earliest possible time," drawing praise from Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who has piled relentless pressure on the central bank to take bolder measures to pull Japan out of deflation.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe seeks a “bold policy leader” as the next Bank of Japan governor as he aims to end deflation and drive a recovery from recession, Bloomberg reported. The choice of a successor to Masaaki Shirakawa, whose term ends in April, will be made after consultations with Yale Professor Emeritus Koichi Hamada and others, Abe said yesterday on public broadcaster NHK’s “Sunday Debate” program. The government and central bank need to agree on implementing a 2 percent inflation target to end deflation, Abe said.

Japan's new government will likely soon follow the U.S. and France in raising taxes on its wealthiest citizens, amid continued concerns about the country's massive government debt, The Wall Street Journal reported. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has attracted global attention—and turbocharged the Nikkei Stock Average—with pledges of bold new economic stimulus, including a big spending plan to be unveiled Friday, and pressure on the Bank of Japan to ease monetary policy.

Japan's new finance minister upped the ante in the country's war of words against the strong yen, lashing out at the U.S. and Europe for letting their currencies weaken dramatically and calling on the U.S. to strengthen the dollar, the Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday. The tirade from Taro Aso, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's point person on currency strategy, underscores the increasingly pugnacious stance of the fledgling Abe government against what it sees as a global trend of currency devaluations.

Japan’s new finance minister, Taro Aso, sought yesterday to quell concern about the country's weak finances, saying that the government would not rely solely on debt to fund economic stimulus and would try to limit new debt issuance during the next fiscal year, Reuters reported yesterday. The government will compile spending requests for a stimulus package on January 7 and finalize the proposal shortly thereafter as Prime Minister Shinzo Abe tries to speed enactment of his agenda of increased public works spending to lift the economy.

Japan has unleashed a new barrage of stimulus at its stagnant economy as debate over how to revive growth heats up ahead of a general election, The Australian reported on an AAP story. The stimulus package announced by the cabinet on Friday totals Y880.3 billion ($A10.34 billion). It is earmarked mainly for spending on social programs, employment creation and support for small and medium-size enterprises. The economy shrank 3.5 per cent in July-September, and many economists say they expect a further contraction in the current quarter.

The front-runner to become Japan's next prime minister said that he would consider loosening some of the nation's fiscal-discipline policies, in defiance of warnings by credit raters to curb borrowing by the heavily indebted government, suggesting instead more spending to help jump-start growth, the Wall Street Journal reported today. "First, we will concentrate our policy tools to curb deflation," opposition leader Shinzo Abe said yesterday.

Sharp Corp. may turn to the last resort of Japanese companies facing potential bankruptcy -- the government, Bloomberg reported. With 200 billion yen ($2.5 billion) of convertible bonds maturing in 2013, Sharp may have to ask the state Enterprise Turnaround Initiative Corp. or Innovation Network Corp. of Japan for money, said Fumiaki Sato, co-founder of Sangyo Sosei Advisory Inc., a turnaround advisory firm in Tokyo. Sharp has failed to win a planned 67 billion-yen equity investment from billionaire Terry Gou’s Foxconn Technology Group.

Micron Technology's plan to acquire Japanese memory chipmaker Elpida took a big step toward completion after a Tokyo court approved the agreement and dismissed a rival plan promoted by a group of bondholders, Reuters reported. A district court in Tokyo said on Wednesday it was referring bankrupt Elpida's plan to be bought by U.S. chipmaker Micron to creditors for approval, according to a news release on Elpida's website.

A U.S. judge told Japanese chipmaker Elpida Memory Inc he was "troubled" by the firm's inadequate efforts to keep creditors informed about its bankruptcy process, and warned he may upend its proposed sale to U.S. rival Micron Technology Inc. Elpida's main bankruptcy proceeding is being handled by a district court in Tokyo, but Christopher Sontchi, the Delaware Bankruptcy Court judge overseeing Elpida's parallel U.S. case, said the company was taking a risk by not keeping creditors better informed.