TOKYO, Dec 18 (Reuters) - The Bank of Japan maintained its base money target under its massive stimulus programme on Friday but decided to expand the types of assets it purchases, targeting longer-dated government bonds and increasing its purchases of risky assets.
In a split vote, the BOJ set up a new programme buying exchange-traded funds and said it would extend the maturity of government bonds it buys to around 12 years, beginning next year.
The BOJ said the new measures were adopted to supplement the effects of its existing quantitative and qualitative easing programme.
BOJ Governor Haruhiko Kuroda will hold a news conference at 3:30 p.m. (0630 GMT) to explain the policy decision. ($1 = 122.4400 yen) (Reporting by Leika Kihara, Stanley White, Tetsushi Kajimoto and Kaori Kaneko; Editing by Edmund Klamann and Chang-Ran Kim)