The increasingly fraught US-China relationship presented Japan with a difficult challenge even before being exacerbated by the pandemic and Ukraine conflict.
The yen is plummeting and inflation is climbing, but Japan’s economic circumstances have led to a view that raising rates would do more harm than good.
Rapidly rising food and energy costs, coupled with a plunging yen that has hit a 20-year low against the dollar, are weighing on a Japanese economy struggling to emerge from the pandemic.