Outgoing BoJ chief Shirakawa says failed on deflation

TOKYO (AFP) - The Bank of Japan's outgoing governor on Tuesday acknowledged he failed to end the country's long-running deflation, but pointed to better times ahead as he steps down from the post.

Mr Masaaki Shirakawa, 63, leaves the job about three weeks before the official end of his term after sparring with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe over policies aimed at stoking the world's third-largest economy.

Mr Abe pressured BoJ policymakers for aggressive easing and other measures to stoke growth, while the central bank has also faced criticism from incoming Governor Haruhiko Kuroda, who himself has pledged to reverse years of falling prices that crimped private spending and corporate investment.

Mr Shirakawa's tenure faced one crisis after another, including the 2008 collapse of Lehman Brothers that sent the world economy into a tailspin, and the eurozone debt crisis that helped push up the value of the safe-haven yen, hurting Japan's exporters.