The Japan Financial Services Agency released a transcript of a joint press conference in which Finance Minister Katayama and Bank of Japan Governor Kazuo Ueda briefed on discussions at the G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors meeting, focusing on the economic and financial spillovers from the escalating Middle East situation. Katayama also announced the creation of a “Power Asia Fast Window” at the Japan Bank for International Cooperation with a scale of up to JPY 600 billion to support the “Asian Energy and Resource Supply Resilience Partnership” (Power Asia). Katayama said he was monitoring volatility in crude oil and financial markets, including spillovers from crude oil futures into foreign exchange, and stressed the importance of safe navigation in the Strait of Hormuz and protecting regional infrastructure. He also highlighted G20 discussions on strengthening global growth, including the role of strategic public investment and regulatory clarification for frontier innovation such as AI, and on global imbalances, including concerns about overproduction under “non-market policies and practices” and a call for multi-year, action-oriented work supported by IMF and OECD monitoring and policy recommendations. Ueda characterised the oil price shock as a negative supply shock creating both upside price risks and downside growth risks, and said the Bank of Japan would make meeting-by-meeting decisions based on incoming data and risk assessments to achieve the 2 percent price target sustainably, while noting Japan’s real interest rates remain very low and financial conditions very accommodative. Katayama pointed to continued coordination ahead of a May G7 meeting and relayed that the IMF expected to revisit related information within two to three weeks, with participants also raising the potential for humanitarian and food-related pressures linked to fertilizer shortages if the situation persists.

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