BOJ: Underlying Inflation Aligned With 2% Price Target

The signal here is less about the inflation number itself than about the BOJ's framing: describing underlying inflation as aligned with target, alongside evidence of a durable wage-and-price-setting shift, moves the debate from whether reflation is real to how long it persists. That matters most for yen-sensitive carry trades and for RWA markets that have leaned on Japanese demand and low-yen funding. The explicit flag on upside deviations is the tell — the open question is whether the BOJ's tolerance for overshoot narrows, and whether expectations keep anchoring near 2% or drift higher.