. while inflation during the bubble period was relatively mild, japan ’ s economy had been brought to the verge of falling into a deflationary spiral in the 1990s. the deflation we observed at that time was largely the result of the bubble economy emerged in the late 1980s. such an experience suggests that we as the central bank should aim at price stability which supports medium to long - term sustainable growth, not price stability at a particular point in time. in this context, even if measured inflation is stable, we need to promptly alter interest rates once we judge that the risk of damaging sustainable price stability has become higher. according to this criterion, we have not, to our regret, sufficiently succeeded in maintaining price stability in japan since the bubble period. so far, i have mainly described the lessons for monetary policy derived from our experience during the period when the bubble emerged. of course, we also need to learn from the experience after the bursting of the bubble. it may be too early to summarize the experience and draw lessons, but i am sure we will learn quite a lot from the discussion at this conference. it is true that there is yet another major factor behind worldwide disinflation. it is the revolutionary progress of information technology, which we may perhaps call a new industrial revolution, and the resulting improvement of productivity. to find answers to what is price stability and an appropriate monetary policy in the face of rapid disinflation due to higher productivity, are difficult but positive challenges. in conclusion, i sincerely hope that through fruitful discussion at the conference, both those from academic circles and central banks will learn more, share the fruit, and make use of the wisdom obtained for the future conduct of monetary policy.

innovation in information technology makes it possible to process and analyse such “ big data ” speedily. also, information related to retail transactions of goods and services, which was left unused in the past, is now gathered through loyalty cards and e - money cards and utilized for business purposes. moreover, new forms of economic activities comprising the “ sharing economy ” have been realized thanks to new information technology. in this process, idle resources dispersed throughout the economy are identified and organized on the micro - level and matched with people's needs. bis central bankers ’ speeches such innovation in information technology has the potential to generate innovation, especially in financial services, and such financial innovation linked to information technology is expressed in the word “ fintech. ” it is not at all surprising that information technology has a major influence on financial services, considering the close and inherent relationship between the two as described above. payments, settlements, investment judgement and risk management, which constitute the core of financial activities, can be regarded as information processing. therefore, progress in information technology and ai can be expected to significantly influence them. moreover, “ blockchain ” and “ distributed ledger technologies, ” the flagship technologies in fintech, challenge the conventional concepts of ledgers kept by a trusted third party in a centralized manner. given that the development of financial services has been supported by ledgers as the basic infrastructure for information, the dramatic changes in how ledgers are kept may have the potential of significantly changing the structure of financial services. iii. importance of information security while innovation in information technology and fintech has the potential to extend the frontiers of financial services, we must bear in mind that information security is becoming all the more important due to these innovations. when searching the internet to shop for goods, various related goods and advertisements pop up to recommend associated purchases. as frequency of use increases, these recommendations and advertisements capture more and more information on the tastes and preferences of customers. this is made possible by high - speed processing of big data, and this innovation in information technology enables the development of profiles on individual customers. however, if such information is abused, in the worst case, the abuse can do substantial harm to society, and can cause anxiety among users in general. as such, advances in information processing underscore the importance of information security. moreover, the development of information technology has simultaneously refined the tactics of hackers and cyber - attacks. particularly in the financial industries with global networks, once such an attack occurs in one location, its