The two-day annual meeting of the Bank of Japan, similar to the Federal Reserve's Jackson Hole central bank meeting, opens in Tokyo on Tuesday. Leading academics and central bankers from the US, Europe and Asia (such as New York Fed President John Williams) will attend, and the conference will focus on two disturbing realities: sluggish economic growth and stubbornly high inflation. While most of the presentations are academic and closed to the media, this year's theme is new challenges for monetary policy, in particular how central banks should respond to persistent inflation, downside risks to the economy, volatile markets and US tariffs. One of the sessions will focus on "reserve requirements, interest rate regulation and quantitative tightening". The other will discuss a paper published by the international monetary fund last December titled "Monetary Policy and Inflation Panic". (Jin Ten)