Reuters reports that Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda said it was important to keep long-term interest rates "stably low" as the economy is still suffering from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

He also told parliament the BOJ was buying government bonds across all maturities in a "balanced" manner, brushing aside some views that it was intentionally shortening the average duration of its bond holdings.

"Excessive falls in super-long interest rates would affect returns for insurers and pension funds. On the other hand, it's important to keep the entire yield curve stably low as the pandemic weighs on the economy," Kuroda said.

Kuroda conceded that Japan's inflation expectations remain stubbornly low in contrast to that of the United States, which he said had "heightened quickly and quite a bit".

But he stressed Japan's real borrowing costs remain low thanks in part to the BOJ's aggressive monetary easing.