At that time also European policymakers and central bankers doubted and criticized that. If you read the IMF or the G20 statements, the Japanese policy was always considered acceptable because it was directed towards understandable domestic targets. Now the same applies to the euro area, although in a different scale: We are not in deflation and we will not be in deflation.
I welcome opportunities such as this to help shed light on our current economic and financial environment, from the vantage point of the central bank, which I hope is not far removed from how it is in the “real” world.