CIRJE-J-205. Fukuda, Shin-ichi, "The Role of Monetary Policy under Financial Turbulence: What role did the quantitative easing policy play in Japan?", October 2008.

Under the financial turbulence, the Bank of Japan (BOJ) had launched a series of unprecedented monetary policies in the late 1990s and the early 2000s. The policies were not effective under liquidity trap from a view point of classical macroeconomics. However, they were powerful in providing ample liquidity to the short-term money market. In the first part, we investigate what role the BOJ played as the lender of last resort and as the lender of so-called Lombard lending facility. The BOJ had played an important role as the lender of last resort until the early 2000s but it lost its role under the quantitative easing policy. In the second part, we explore how effective the unprecedented monetary policies were in stabilizing intra-daily call market. Even under the zero interest rate policy, some overnight loans were transacted at the interest rates that were significantly higher than 0%. In contrast, risk premiums almost disappeared in the short-term financial market under the quantitative easing policy. This was particularly true when the BOJ intensified its quantitative easing policy. We show that the extreme monetary policy was useful in improving macroeconomic performance such as average stock prices.