Bank of Japan (8301) Governor Masaaki Shirakawa’s former professor said the next head of the central bank could end decades of deflation in months by going beyond the current governor’s “very weak” efforts. The BOJ should ease until inflation of 2 percent or 3 percent is reached, Koichi Hamada, 76, a retired Yale University economics professor who taught Shirakawa at Tokyo University, said in a phone interview yesterday. That would be “no problem” if opposition leader Shinzo Abe, whom Hamada advises on policy, wins national elections this month as polls suggest and appoints a more aggressive central-bank chief, he ... (full story)