On September 18, the Bank of Japan raised its benchmark interest rate to a level unseen since the mid-1990s, closing a long chapter defined by emergency-era stimulus and near-zero borrowing costs. The move was not a surprise — it was a signal: that Japan's policymakers now believe their economy strong enough to bear the weight of normalcy. In the arc of modern monetary history, this moment marks Japan's quiet but consequential return from the margins of unconventional policy toward the center of orthodox finance.