BOJ’s Ueda: Underlying Inflation Now Very Close to 2%

Ueda's framing matters for crypto and RWA markets because a credible return of Japan's underlying inflation to target strengthens the case for a normalization path in Japanese monetary policy, which has long been the anchor of global liquidity via yen-funded carry. The explicit nod to a restored wage-price cycle, and his reluctance to sharply separate demand-pull from cost-push pressures, suggests the BOJ is building tolerance for sustained inflation rather than treating it as transitory. Whether core inflation actually holds stably around 2% — and whether wage pass-through persists into services — is the open question that determines how quickly policy normalization proceeds.