Historic move by the BOJ, but let’s be clear: raising rates to tame price rises is a blunt tool that risks hitting ordinary people far harder than the financial players who caused the instability. Core inflation is already around 1.7% — close to target — so accelerating hikes now could squeeze households with mortgages, push up unemployment, and hurt small businesses, while doing little to fix the real driver of higher prices: a global energy shock and supply disruptions. Monetary tightening can be part of the response, but it shouldn’t be the only one. Progressive policy would combine modest rate adjustments with targeted fiscal measures: emergency relief for low- and middle-income families, rent and food support, indexation of wages and benefits, and a windfall tax on energy firms’ profits to fund those protections. Instead of bowing to market pressure or geopolitical signalling, Japan should use this moment to accelerate investments that reduce energy vulnerability — renewables, efficiency, and diversified supply chains — and to tackle its demographic challenges with childcare, immigration and job-training policies that actually grow the economy inclusively. Finally, central banks must be accountable to democratically elected governments. Decisions that risk recession and inequality need to be matched by social protections and public investment. If we’re moving away from decades of ultra-low rates, let’s ensure the burden doesn’t fall on workers and the most vulnerable.