Haircuts and beef bowls helping BOJ's Kuroda win converts

Rising prices for budget haircuts and bowls of beef and rice are helping Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda win over doubters in his own ranks of his ambitious drive to cast off deflation. Sluggish exports and a sales tax increase on April 1 had some board members openly questioning Kuroda, and bureaucrats were quietly game-planning policy options. Now, as early data and anecdotes suggest the recovery in the world's third-biggest economy has not been derailed by the tax hike, investors and other BOJ policymakers are coming around. "If gyudon shops are passing on the higher costs, that tells you something about changes in psychology," said a BOJ official who compared prices at the various beef-bowl restaurant chains.

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