The anxiety in the Japanese bond market overshadows the debut of Naoto Kan's first economic blueprint.

Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takashi in the first economic blueprint finalized on Tuesday promised to increase investment in growth areas, but this promise has been overshadowed by concerns in the market that the government may intervene in monetary policy, leading to rising bond yields. The Takashi government has been struggling to dispel market concerns that it may increase spending and pressure the Bank of Japan to delay raising interest rates, thereby containing Japan's already huge debt financing costs. As government bond yields have climbed to their highest levels in decades since June, the government has been forced to adjust the wording on monetary policy in the blueprint multiple times. With long-term interest rates rising, the earlier draft calling for the implementation of "stimulate private demand" monetary policy has been removed. In later versions, the wording linking monetary policy to government measures to boost economic growth caused market turmoil, leading to revisions to clarify that the central bank's policy aims to "achieve stable price increases". The final version of the blueprint retained the statement urging the Bank of Japan to align its policy with government policy, but added a footnote citing provisions in the law that mandate protecting the central bank's independence in formulating policy. "For a strong economy, it is crucial to implement monetary policy properly to achieve stable price increases," the final blueprint approved by the Cabinet on Tuesday stated.