Wall Street's Quick Review of Bank of Japan Rate hikes: Will Not Disrupt the Rise of Japanese Stocks! The Bank of Japan ended a decade long aggressive monetary easing policy on Tuesday, raising its benchmark interest rate from -0.1% to 0-0.1%, ending the era of negative interest rates and marking the first rate hike by the Bank of Japan in 17 years. However, the Bank of Japan's interest rate hike is full of optimistic signals, and many people in the market have a feeling of seeing the moon through the clouds, which is completely different from the response brought by the interest rate hike policies of other Western central banks.