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.
With your current subscription plan you can comment on stories. However, before writing your first comment, please create a display name in the Profile section of your subscriber account page.