The Bank of Japan on Thursday put off additional monetary easing while raising its assessment of the economy, saying it appears to have stopped weakening.
After its two-day Policy Board meeting drew to a close, BOJ Gov. Masaaki Shirakawa told a news conference that signs of the economy picking up have become observable.
"We've upgraded our economic assessment by one step and agreed that the weakening has stopped," Shirakawa said, citing such factors as an upward trend in public and housing investment.