In his first term as Bank of Japan head, Haruhiko Kuroda was a man of bold and convincing action. In his second, he needs to be a man of words, and courageous ones at that.
Since 2013, "open-market operations" have been Kuroda's raison d'etre: firing monetary bazookas at deflation, cornering the government bond market, hoarding 75 percent of exchange-traded funds, driving down the yen. The next few years must be about "open-mouth operations" to influence changes in behavior needed to restore confidence and pricing power.
Kuroda already talks plenty, you might counter. Too much, perhaps. Sadly, though, he talks to the wrong audience about the wrong set of problems. To turn things around, to reflate Japan in a bold and convincing way, Kuroda could do worse than borrow from central bankers famed for great linguistic sway — like Alan Greenspan.