The Bank of Japan raised its economic assessment for the Hokuriku and Tokai regions in its quarterly regional report on Monday, market analysts said, according to Jinshi. In addition, the Bank of Japan said many branches reported that corporate leaders increasingly believe that wages need to continue to rise next year. New Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba pointed out on his first day in office that conditions are not yet ripe for taking interest rate action, causing some economists to postpone their forecasts for a rate hike by the end of the year. Monday's report is a reminder that a rate hike is still a matter of time, and it may bring encouraging news to Governor Kazuo Ueda, who has reiterated that the spread of wage growth is a key point to help determine the direction of interest rates. The Japanese Trade Union Confederation (Rengo), Japan's largest labor union organization, will this month formulate a basic stance for next spring wage negotiations, and the market will also pay close attention to this development.