VENTURE CAPITAL POST

The Bank of Japan on Tuesday maintained its massive asset buying program but offered a bleaker view on factory output, following signs that the world's third-largest economy was hit harder than expected by a sales tax increase in April.

Japan's legions of retail foreign-exchange traders, popularly known as Mrs Watanabe, are turning into sellers of yen.

Asian share market sentiment was cautious on Thursday after U.S. President Barack Obama vowed to fight Islamic State militants, while the dollar pushed to fresh six-year highs against the yen.

Japan's economy shrank an annualised 7.1 percent in April-June from the previous quarter, more than a preliminary estimate, underscoring concerns the hit from an April increase in the sales tax may have been bigger than expected.

The Bank of Japan will maintain its existing stimulus policy and optimistic economic view on when it meets on Thursday, sources say, preferring to take more time to gauge whether a run of weak data is sufficient to threaten a fragile recovery.

Japan was a winner when it came to how its stocks performed on the market.