This approach – described as credit easing – is conceptually distinct from quantitative easing, the policy approach used by the Bank of Japan from 2001 through 2006. Credit easing and quantitative easing both share the feature that they involve the expansion of the central bank's balance sheet.
That said, the ways in which the policy approaches expand the balance sheet – and act to stimulate lending – are different. Quantitative easing can be thought of as an expansion of the central bank's balance sheet with no intentional change in its composition.