The government plans to ask the Bank of Japan to increase purchases of bank-held stocks to combat falling share prices and head off a financial crisis stemming from a possible war in Iraq, and has asked the central bank to ease its credit grip, officials said Wednesday.
The officials said the government may ask the BOJ to expand the 2 trillion yen target of its purchases of bank-held shares and further unwind cross-held shares by financial institutions and weak corporations ahead of March 31 book-closings.
On Wednesday, the BOJ announced that its purchases of bank-held shares totaled 906 billion yen as of Monday. The central bank announced earlier this month that its purchases as of Feb. 28 had totaled 831 billion yen.