Haruhiko Kuroda built a career battling a strong yen and the Bank of Japan governor is unlikely to change course in his final year at the helm, several sources said, despite political pressure to acknowledge that the weak currency is now a problem.
Sources familiar with the bank's thinking and people close to Kuroda, whose decade in charge ends next April, said he is likely to protect his legacy by avoiding tweaks to a monetary policy that continues to treat a strong yen as enemy No. 1.
The BOJ's dovish signals may give markets a chance to drive down the yen further, as prospects of steady policy tightening by the Federal Reserve widen the Japan-U.S. interest rate gap.