The BOJ said it bought 70.3 billion yen in stock ETFs on Tuesday.

It also bought 1.2 billion yen in ETFs comprising stocks issued by firms that are proactively investing in physical and human capital, bringing its total amount of ETF buying in 2018 to a record 6.0678 trillion yen.

In calendar 2017, the BOJ bought 5.9033 trillion yen.

Under a massive asset-buying programme launched in 2013, the BOJ is buying government bonds and risky assets such as ETFs to achieve its ambitious 2 percent inflation target.

The BOJ pledges to buy roughly 6 trillion yen of ETFs per year, but in July the central bank decided to make its ETF buying more flexible, saying that the size of its purchases could fluctuate depending on market conditions.