TOKYO - Bank of Japan Governor Kazuo Ueda has been hospitalized for treatment of a hepatic cyst infection and will miss a monetary policy meeting next week, the central bank said Wednesday.
BOJ Deputy Governor Ryozo Himino will chair the two-day meeting beginning Monday, while the other deputy governor, Shinichi Uchida, will hold the post-meeting press conference, the bank said.
Ueda will present his views to the meeting in writing but will not exercise his voting rights, according to the BOJ.
The governor is expected to be in hospital for about two weeks and attend the BOJ's two-day policy meeting from July 30, it said.
During his hospitalization, he will continue to carry out necessary duties remotely.
Sources close to the matter said earlier that the BOJ plans to raise its key policy rate to a 31-year high of 1.0 percent from 0.75 percent at the meeting next week amid inflation risks stemming from the Middle East crisis.
It would mark the first rate hike since December after it left the policy rate unchanged at its previous three meetings. Under Ueda, who assumed the post in April 2023, the bank is shifting toward policy normalization following a decade of unorthodox monetary easing.
