Bank of Japan Governor Kazuo Ueda will skip this week’s Jackson Hole symposium because of scheduling conflicts, and BOJ board member Naoki Tamura will attend the US Federal Reserve’s annual gathering in his place, the central bank said on Wednesday.

There will be no media opportunity for Tamura during the event. It is also unusual for a BOJ board member, rather than the governor or one of the bank’s two deputy governors, to represent the institution at the closely watched conference.

Tamura, a former commercial banker, is regarded as a hawk on the BOJ’s nine-member policy board. He has repeatedly called for interest rate increases every few months to counter what he sees as upside risks to prices.

Ueda’s absence means markets will not get the governor’s own reading of Fed Chair Kevin Warsh’s debut Jackson Hole speech this week, an address analysts say could have important implications for Japan because of the potential impact on the yen and Japanese government bond yields depending on the tone Warsh strikes.

With Ueda not attending Jackson Hole, attention has shifted to whether he will appear at next week’s G20 finance ministers and central bank governors meeting in Asheville, North Carolina. That meeting runs from Monday, 31 August, to Tuesday, 1 September, and is preceded by a separate deputies-level gathering in the same city on 29 and 30 August.

The BOJ has not said whether Ueda plans to attend the ministerial meeting. However, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has said publicly that he is looking forward to meeting the BOJ chief in Asheville, a comment that has increased market interest in a possible sidelines interaction between the two.

The uncertainty over Ueda’s public appearances comes at a pivotal moment for Japanese monetary policy, with communication from senior BOJ officials closely watched for hints about the timing of the next move. A joint US-Japan intervention in the yen earlier this month, along with later comments from Bessent, has pushed markets to nearly fully price in a Bank of Japan rate increase in September, which would follow an earlier hike in June.

A Reuters poll published this week showed that a majority of economists now expect the BOJ to raise its policy rate to 1.25% from 1% at its 17-18 September meeting, a sharp shift from expectations just a month earlier.

In the nearer term, BOJ Deputy Governor Ryozo Himino is scheduled to deliver a speech and hold a press conference on Thursday. Market participants will watch that appearance closely for any additional signal on the likelihood and timing of a rate move next month.

With Ueda’s own public commentary now delayed until at least the Asheville gathering, Himino’s remarks take on added significance as the most direct opportunity for the BOJ to shape expectations before the September meeting.

The move to send Tamura to Jackson Hole instead of Ueda is itself being viewed as a modest signal, given the near-consensus view among economists that the BOJ will move to 1.25% at its 17-18 September meeting.