Japan has joined the EU, Denmark, Switzerland and Sweden in imposing negative interest rates.
Indeed, more than a fifth of the world’s GDP is now covered by a central bank with negative interest rates.
The Wall Street Journal notes:
TOKYO—Japan’s central bank stunned the markets Friday by setting the country’s first negative interest rates, in a desperate attempt to keep the economy from sliding back into the stagnation that has dogged it for much of the last two decades.