Despite these favourable developments, inflationary pressures remain weak. Underlying inflation has been basically flat at 1 % over the last 5 years – far from our objective of below but close to 2 % - and wage growth does not yet show convincing upward momentum. Looking forward, underlying inflation is projected to only gradually rise to 1.8 % in 2020.
In contrast to the euro area and the Unites States, nominal weakness has been a permanent 1/5  BIS central bankers' speeches  feature of the Japanese economy over the last 2 decades. While recently, economic growth has strengthened a bit and the unemployment rate fell to record lows, wage growth has remained weak and inflation stubbornly low.