Toshihiko Fukui: Developments in Japan’s economy in 2006 and the outlook for 2007 Summary of a speech by Mr Toshihiko Fukui, Governor of the Bank of Japan, to the Board of Councillors of Nippon Keidanren (Japan Business Federation), Tokyo, 25 December 2006. *  *  *  Introduction There is now less than a week until the end of 2006.
The year has been marked by the sustained recovery of Japan's economy, which began in January 2002, exceeding the record of the Izanagi boom, the longest postwar economic expansion (57 months during 1965-70). The Bank of Japan terminated the quantitative easing policy in March and in July returned to pursuing a monetary policy in which it controls interest rates.