The world’s biggest economies have rolled out a plethora of monetary support measures over the past two months. If there’s one central bank that knows how hard bottling them back up will be, it’s Japan, where special operations have become a permanent fixture. Tokyo’s example suggests that policy makers will have an expansive role for years to come, particularly given the depth of the slump from the coronavirus outbreak. Japan headed into its lockdown hobbled by poor choices, chiefly an ill-timed hike in the consumption tax at the end of 2019. Gross domestic product fell an annualized 3.4% in the first quarter from ... (full story)