Reuters reports that Bank of Japan board member Seiji Adachi said that a post-coronavirus pandemic world could offer an opportunity for Japanese firms to raise prices and help the central bank achieve its 2% inflation target.

But there was little the BOJ can do besides "patiently" sustaining its massive stimulus, Adachi said.

"Personally, I can't think of any new tool to directly push up prices. If there were one, we would have deployed it already," Adachi told.

While restaurants and hotels may need to continue shouldering the cost of steps to prevent the spread of the virus, consumers may become more willing to pay more for value-added services, Adachi said.

"This could offer firms a chance to charge more for higher quality services," said Adachi, a former market economist.

"A post-pandemic world may offer a big chance to achieve our 2% inflation target," if retailers are able to charge more for their services unlike in Japan's past periods of deflation, he added.