On December 20, Gelonghui reported that Analyst Justin McQueen stated that the Bank of Japan Governor Kazuo Ueda unexpectedly did not commit to tightening recent policies during the monetary policy meeting. This led to a significant rise in the yen and raised concerns among Japanese officials about recent trends. Governor Ueda noted that 'the overall situation regarding wage trends will become clearer by March or April of next year,' which seems to open the door for delaying interest rate hikes until May. However, this may be more about avoiding being cornered than leaving options open. It is worth noting that significant changes in U.S. fiscal policy may occur starting at the end of January. Regarding the next meeting's interest rate hike, Ueda indeed emphasized that they will look into the information from the January branch managers' meeting and stated that more data needs to be obtained based on the data seen in recent months. Despite rising doubts about recent interest rate hikes, the basic scenario still exists for further normalization of policies at the January meeting.