The Bank of Japan on Friday defied acute political pressure and decided to abandon its "zero-interest-rate" policy.
In adjusting the unsecured overnight call money rate to 0.25 percent, the BOJ raised interest rates for the first time in 10 years.
The central bank's nine-member Policy Board headed by Gov. Masaru Hayami announced that with a majority vote it terminated the 18-month-old policy in view of the nation's "substantially improved" economy over the past year-and-a-half.