The target amount of the balances was raised nine times from the initial 5 trillion yen (which was higher than the required reserve level of 4 trillion yen) to approximately 30–35 trillion yen in January 2004. The reserve targeting was achieved mainly through relatively short-term money market operations with some purchases of long-term JGBs.
The Bank decided that the economic conditions warranted drastic monetary easing. It issued a statement in March 2001 stating that monetary easing would continue to be in place until the core CPI registers stably zero percent or an increase year on year. This was state-contingent guidance, linking to the continuation of the quantitative easing policy.