Asahi Noguchi, a BOJ board member known for his reflationary stance, poured cold water over such speculation, in comments at a news conference in Niigata, north or Tokyo, where he had delivered a speech to business leaders.
"There's no need to rush into doing something as there's still room for a 1% cap (for the yield band)," Noguchi said, noting long-term interest rates were hovering around 0.8%.
The BOJ next meets for a policy meeting on Oct. 30-31, when it issues fresh quarterly growth and inflation projections. Noguchi expected upward revisions to the BOJ's price forecasts.
"Inflation remains higher than expected so price forecasts must be revised up substantially for the fiscal 2023," Noguchi added.
Policymakers must focus on improving wage growth to pave the way for sustainable inflation before tweaking easing policy, he said.
"We still need to guide policy with mainly downside risks in mind," Noguchi said, citing for example that Chinese economy may face the risks of deflation and low growth that Japan has suffered for decades.