Bank of Japan Policy Board members have begun openly signaling a policy switch, apparently taking comfort from reports pointing to an economic pickup.
There is speculation that the board will decide to raise a key short-term interest rate by 0.125 percentage point or 0.25 point at its July 17 meeting, ending its zero-interest-rate policy.
I do not personally believe, however, that a BOJ policy switch -- a positive factor for the yen -- will be in the pipeline before September.