Japan raises rates to 1.25% as inflation breaks three-decade freeze

For the first time in a generation, Japan is raising the price of money — not once, but twice in three months, bringing its benchmark rate to 1.25 per cent, a level unseen since 1995. The Bank of Japan's decision reflects a quiet but profound rupture: three decades of near-zero rates, born from the trauma of a burst bubble, are giving way to a new era shaped by geopolitical shocks, a weakened yen, and an inflation that feels alien to a society that once watched lunch prices hold steady for thirty years. The move is technically modest, but its meaning is vast — Japan is attempting to normalize