Speech by Mr Haruhiko Kuroda, Governor of the Bank of Japan, at the Meeting of Councillors of Nippon Keidanren (Japan Business Federation), Tokyo, 26 December 2017.
Introduction
It is a great honor to have this opportunity to address such a distinguished gathering of business leaders in Japan today.
The year has flown by, and 2018 is now just a week away. Today, to round off 2017, I would like to take a look back at this year's economic developments both at home and abroad, and elaborate on Japan's current economic recovery phase - the second longest in the post-war era - while making comparisons with past recovery phases, focusing in particular on labor shortages and firms' efforts to overcome them. I would then like to explain the Bank of Japan's conduct of monetary policy and close my speech by sharing my hopes for Japan's economy in the coming year.