Bank of Japan Gov. Masaru Hayami on Tuesday reiterated his desire to abandon the current "zero-interest-rate" policy, describing it as "unnatural."
Hayami's comment, made during his appearance at a Lower House committee, came a day after the bank's nine-member Policy Board voted to maintain the policy.
The bank has been steering the overnight interbank lending rate to near zero since February 1999, prompted by a deflationary spiral and Japan's worst recession in postwar history.