'Abenomics' architect calls for fresh BOJ easing, tax hike delay

TOKYO (Reuters) - The Bank of Japan needs to deploy additional monetary stimulus to meet its 2 percent inflation target as planned, a ruling party lawmaker and one of the architects of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's reflationary policies said on Wednesday.

Kozo Yamamoto, a prominent reflationist in Abe's Liberal Democratic Party, said a weakening of the yen to 110-120 against the dollar would be positive for Japan's economy as a whole, but a rapid depreciation or weakening beyond this range would do more harm than good.

He also told Reuters in an interview that the government should delay a second sales tax hike planned for next year until April 2017, warning that proceeding as planned would ruin Abe's pro-growth policies, dubbed "Abenomics".

Previously, Yamamoto had said the government should proceed with the second tax increase as planned and signaled no need for imminent BOJ easing, saying the bank's policy was "on track". But Yamamoto said he has changed his view following a recent run of weak economic indicators.

(Reporting by Tetsushi Kajimoto and Yuko Yoshikawa; Editing by Chris Gallagher)