Japan’s healthy economic growth should allow its central bank to whittle down its massive stimulus program, even before inflation hits its 2 percent target, Koji Ishida, a former Bank of Japan board member, said. Ishida, originally a commercial bank executive before joining the BOJ board, said the central bank’s recent move to make its stimulus more sustainable was long overdue, given the hit to regional banks’ profits from ultra-low rates. Stubbornly low inflation has forced the BOJ to maintain its ultra-easy policy in recent years despite concerns about the side-effects of such policy on markets and the banking ... (full story)