Japan's parliament to hold session next week on BOJ rate hike

Japan's parliament plans to hold a special session on Aug. 23 to discuss the central bank's decision last month to raise interest rates, government sources said on Tuesday.

The special session, to be conducted by the lower house financial affairs committee, is likely to ask Bank of Japan Governor Kazuo Ueda to attend, said the sources, who declined to be identified.

The schedule will be officially decided later on Tuesday.


The BOJ surprised markets by raising interest rates to a 15-year high on July 31 and signalling its readiness to hike borrowing costs further on growing prospects that inflation will durably hit its 2% target.

The decision, coupled with U.S. recession fears, roiled financial markets, triggering the Nikkei benchmark's biggest selloff since the 1987 Black Monday crash.

The market rout led senior officials from the ruling and major opposition parties to agree to summon Ueda to explain the central bank's decision.