Japanese economist: 'No quick fixes'

The meeting between Prime Minister Naoto Kan and Masaaki Shirakawa was scratched in favor of a 15-minute phone call in which there was "absolutely no talk" of strategies to lower the value of the yen, which has recently risen to a 15-year high against the U.S. dollar, The New York Times reported Monday.

"The truth is, there are no quick fixes, but markets are disappointed that they got nothing at all," said Norio Miyagawa, an economist at Mizuho Securities Research and Consulting.

The Bank of Japan has set its key lending rate at 0.1 percent and has little room to affect policy further, although it could act to purchase long-term government debt or make more money accessible to banks for short term lending.

But deflationary trends have stymied the economy so long "We think that the market is pinning rather too many hopes on countermeasures," said Nomura Securities strategist Taisuke Tanaka.

"The market may soon realize just how few options Japanese authorities have left," Tanaka said.

Meanwhile, the government's option of adding to a $10 trillion public debt with stimulus spending is unlikely in the current political climate, the Times said.

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