To help stabilize financial markets, the Bank of Japan opted on the last day of its two-day Policy Board meeting Wednesday to increase its purchases of Japanese government bonds from banks.

Starting this month, the BOJ will increase its annual JGB purchases to ¥21.6 trillion from ¥16.8 trillion, up ¥4.8 trillion. On a monthly basis, it means buying ¥1.8 trillion worth of JGBs, instead of ¥1.4 trillion.

With little room left to cut interest rates, the board also will leave the uncollateralized overnight call rate at around 0.1 percent.