The following appeared in an article from the Reuters news agency: The [Bank of Japan] has come under pressure from the government to do more to support the economy and avert the risk of another recession before elections next year for Parliament's upper house. . . .
The central bank's governor, Masaaki Shirakawa, met with Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama on Wednesday, but he said Mr. Hatoyama did not ask him to take additional easing steps when the two met. . . .
Mr. Hatoyama steered clear of criticizing the central bank when speaking to reporters after the meeting.
Why might both the head of the Bank of Japan and the head of the Japanese government not want it to appear that the government was dictating policy actions to the Bank of Japan?