It's too early for Japan to exit easy monetary policy: Bank of Japan members

• Japan's central bank should explain that the economy is not yet ready for a phase where an exit from a loose monetary policy should be considered, some Bank of Japan policymakers said.
• At the March meeting, the BOJ kept policy steady and its governor signaled his readiness to ramp up stimulus if the economy lost steam.

Pedestrians cross a road in front of the Bank of Japan headquarters in Tokyo, Japan on Sept. 21, 2016.

Kiyoshi Ota | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Some Bank of Japan policymakers said the central bank should explain to the public that the
economy has yet to reach a phase where the timing and means to exit ultra-loose policy could be considered, minutes of their March rate review showed on Monday.

"While normalization, or a gradual reduction in the degree of monetary accommodation, could become a topic for consideration in the future, the BOJ needs to explain to markets that normalization ... would be different from monetary tightening," one board member was quoted as saying.

At the March meeting, the BOJ kept policy steady and its governor signaled his readiness to ramp up stimulus if the economy lost steam, in a push-back against lingering speculation it could whittle down monetary support earlier than expected.