that a small improvement in the birth rate also has been achieved. chart 4 shows the unemployment rate, the marriage rate, and the birth rate for the population of 20 - to 39 - year - olds. it is a well - known fact that the marriage rate and the birth rate are correlated, as is more or less evident from the chart. chart 4 rates of unemployment, marriage, and birth 100 thous. persons ( live births ) ; persons ( birth rate ) ; cases ( marriage rate ) % 1968 71 80 83 86 89 92 95 98 01 04 07 10 13 16 number of live births birth rate ( per 1, 000 population aged 20 to 39 ) marriage rate ( per 1, 000 population aged 20 to 39 ) unemployment rate ( aged 20 to 39, right scale ) note : for 1975 onward, the birth rate is calculated as the number of live births to mothers aged 20 to 39 divided by the population aged 20 to 39. for 1974 and earlier, the birth rate is calculated as the total number of live births divided by the population aged 20 to 39. the marriage rate is calculated as the total number of marriages divided by the population aged 20 to 39. sources : ministry of internal affairs and communications, " labour force survey " ; ministry of health, labour and welfare, " vital statistics. " let us take a closer look at this. the birth rate per 1, 000 population aged 20 to 39 ( hereafter birth rate ), which previously had been on a declining trend, has been rising since 2005 along with the decline in the unemployment rate. the bar graph in the chart illustrates this trend in terms of live births per population ( hereafter live births ). note how, when comparing two age groups with the same birth rate, the number of live births increases for the age group with a greater number of constituents. given that second - generation baby boomers ( children of baby boomers born between 1947 and 1949 ) reached their average marriage age sometime between 1995 and 2000 or, if we take the rise in the average marriage age into account, sometime between 2000 and 2005, the number of live births subsequently would have increased had there been a reversal in the birth rate around this time. there turned out to be no such increase, however. the reason is that, during the approximate period from 1995 to 2005 and in the few years after the outbreak of the global financial crisis in 2008, young people of this generation were not able to find stable employment due to the so -

federal reserve. it is different from the hierarchical or lexicographic ranking of the ecb which attaches overriding importance to maintaining price stability ( papademos ( 2006 ) ). quantitative easing policy 4. despite the dual mandate, under the quantitative easing policy regime of the period covering march 2001 to february 2006, the primary objective was focused on the restoration of price stability or the exit from the deflation which had persisted since late 1998. the other important objective was to stabilize the financial system. the bank of japan made a commitment to continue the zero interest rate policy unless the rate of change in consumer prices moved above zero in a stable manner. more precisely, the monetary policy committee in october 2003 made the conditions for exit more transparent. namely, the following three conditions must be satisfied before ending the quantitative easing policy : ( 1 ) the current rate of change in consumer prices moves up above zero ( 2 ) the rate of change in consumer prices does not return to negative territory, ( 3 ) there may be a case that the boj will judge it appropriate to continue the zero interest rate policy, even though the first two conditions are satisfied. the explicit commitment on the duration of zero interest rate policy worked to lower longerterm interest rates. increasing bank reserve targets strengthened the " time duration effect " which relied solely on market expectations of future developments in policy rates in the absence of any actual change in policy rates ( iwata ( 2005 ) ). new policy framework 5. after confirming the development of an above - zero inflation rate, the boj exited from the quantitative easing policy in march 2006. at the time of the exit, the bank announced a new policy framework. in this framework we provided the " understanding of medium - to long - term price stability " in a numerical form conceived by the board members. it ranges from 0 % to 2 % with the distribution above and below the median value of 1 %. this longer - run price stability concept can be regarded as a natural consequence arising from the second condition under the quantitative easing policy. this " understanding of medium - to long - term price stability " is common knowledge among the board members. it is not only shared knowledge, but also everybody knows that the others know it. provision of common knowledge serves as a focal point to coordinate human action. 6. thomas schelling ( 1960 ) illustrated the role of focal points using the following situation as a whimsical example : " when husband and wife, separated in a department store,