A joke about BOJ's Kuroda that is doing the rounds . . .

THERE is a little joke doing the rounds in Tokyo that the only person Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe forgot to include when he announced his new Cabinet line-up last week was Bank of Japan (BOJ) governor Haruhiko Kuroda, who some say is as good as being "in government" now.

Relations between the head of the Japanese central bank and key government ministers, including Mr Abe, appear to have become so close as to make traditional ideas of a "healthy" separation of powers between the Bank and the Cabinet almost meaningless.

This can only end in tears, critics argue. The BOJ, they say, will bankroll profligate spending by the government, leading eventually to runaway inflation, debasement of the yen, a loss of international confidence and the ultimate collapse of the Japanese economy.