After years of holding rates near zero, the Bank of Japan stands at the threshold of a significant monetary turning point, with markets pricing in an 80 percent probability of a rate increase on September 18. A persistently weak yen — resistant even to coordinated U.S.-Japan intervention — has made the case for tightening both economic and urgent, as import-driven inflation presses against the daily lives of ordinary Japanese. The decision, shaped by voices like former board member Seiji Adachi, would signal not merely a policy adjustment but the formal close of an era defined by the belief th