The Bank of Japan pumped 500 billion yen into the short-term money market Tuesday morning in an effort to hold interest rates down, its second straight day of large-scale intervention.
The funds were supplied at 9:20 a.m., with the central bank purchasing promissory notes from financial institutions on the market.
Ten minutes after the operation, the BOJ notified financial institutions of a plan to supply another 600 billion yen Thursday via a government bond-purchase, with their resale slated for June 12.
Following the cash injection and the bond-purchase announcement, the benchmark overnight call rate moved in the 0.020 percent to 0.030 percent range in the morning, well below the 0.100 percent the central bank regards as the upper limit for the rate under its zero interest policy.