Second, in terms of the qualitative aspect, with a view to encouraging a further decline in interest rates across the yield curve, the Bank decided to purchase Japanese government bonds (JGBs), so that the amount outstanding of its holdings would increase at an annual pace of about 50 trillion yen, similarly doubling in two years, from 89 trillion yen at the end of 2012 to 190 trillion yen at the end of 2014.
In addition, the Bank decided to extend the average remaining maturity of its JGB purchases from slightly less than three years to about seven years.