As the nation prepares to usher in a new year, policymakers at the Bank of Japan are grappling with an unprecedented dilemma: how to end the bank's "quantitative easing" monetary policy.
This policy of flooding the call market with excess cash that has been in place since March 2001 appears close to its deathbed, with strong signs that the economy is finally emerging from deflation.
"Let's stop doping the economy with morphine." Such is the message central bank officials have been transmitting in recent months, despite the ire of politicians, including Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, who argue the time is not ripe for such a move.