Today, a Japanese government official stated that 'the Bank of Japan should avoid premature rate hikes and excessive adjustments to monetary support.' This likely won't change the BOJ's rate hike decision this Friday, but it could impact the pace of future actions. As mentioned before, the key focus of Friday's BOJ meeting isn't this rate hike itself, but rather the outlook for the BOJ's future interest rate policy path—like when the next hike might happen after this one, and where the terminal rate might land in the future. Personally, I expect there will be at most one or two more hikes after this, with relatively long intervals in between (maybe six months or even longer). The BOJ might pause around a 1% rate to reassess. The core logic here is that the BOJ aims to move away from prolonged negative interest rates and toward rate normalization. However, the economic situation and planned fiscal stimulus suggest they won't be able to push rates to particularly high levels. Today's statement from the Japanese government official reflects this sentiment.