Bank of Japan board member Tadao Noda reiterated Thursday that the central bank doesn't have any preset ideas on the timing of its next interest rate increase. "We don't have any preconceptions at all about the rate hike timing," Noda said at a press conference, after earlier making a speech to business leaders in Okayama, western Japan. Noda said the BOJ makes its policy judgment by looking at the overall outlook for the economy and prices every time the policy board meets, and that its judgment won't be affected by the results of individual economic indicators. Noda said the BOJ won't make its policy judgment with any preset schedule in mind, such as whether the next monetary tightening will be made by the end of the calendar year, or early next year or beyond. "We have a blank sheet about the timing" of the next rate hike, he said. BOJ watchers are divided when the central bank will raise policy rates again, especially after a series of economic data released in recent weeks have been mixed. But Wednesday's stronger-than-expected industrial production data for October revived views that the BOJ's tankan corporate sentiment survey due Dec. 15 will be strong, and could encourage the BOJ to conduct another hike in the near future. While saying financial market players vividly react to each set of economic data, Noda said he wants to decline to comment on specific economic indicators. He stressed that the BOJ has been taking a "forward-looking" approach of analyzing the overall outlook for the economy and prices, and not just price levels.