Window guidance

Window guidance (Japanese: 窓口指導) or informal guidance, is an informal policy instrument used to regulate the in a specific industry or sector. Window guidance typically involves the use of benevolent compulsion in order to regulate the supply of credit as a way to achieve policy targets such as sustainability. Window guidance involves the use of monetary policy instruments including lending quotas as an informal way to subsidize or regulate the volume of banking credit in a given industry or financial sector. Window guidance is often associated with the Bank of Japan's policies during the Japanese economic miracle, although similar policies have been widely used in the post WWII era in other Asian countries, as well as Western European countries (France, UK, Belgium, Germany) and Canada.

Window guidance has been noted for causing favouritism for capital allocation, as well as being a form of direct government intervention.