Tokyo’s financial nerve center, the Bank of Japan (BoJ) headquarters in Nihonbashi, stood as a bastion of measured resolve on December 4, 2025, when the central bank opted to hold its short-term policy rate at 0.25 percent, extending its ultra-accommodative stance amid a fragile economic recovery. Governor Kazuo Ueda, in a meticulously scripted post-meeting press conference, emphasized the bank’s “data-dependent vigilance,” citing persistent inflationary undercurrents offset by subdued global demand and domestic wage stagnation at 2.0 percent year-on-year