was a Japanese businessman, central banker and the 13th Governor of the

Bank of Japan The is the central bank of Japan.Louis Frédéric, Nussbaum, Louis Frédéric. (2005). "Nihon Ginkō" in The bank is often called for short. It has its headquarters in Chūō, Tokyo, Chūō, Tokyo. History Like most modern Japanese instituti ...

(BOJ).

Early life

Fukai was born in

Gumma Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Gunma Prefecture has a population of 1,937,626 (1 October 2019) and has a geographic area of 6,362 km2 (2,456 sq mi). Gunma Prefecture borders Niigata Prefecture and Fukushima P ...

Career

Fukai was the aide to

Takahashi Korekiyo Viscount was a Japanese politician who served as a member of the House of Peers, as Prime Minister of Japan from 1921 to 1922, and as the head of the Bank of Japan and Ministry of Finance. Takahashi made many contributions to Japan's develop ...

, who was responsible for negotiating war loans to pay for Japan's participation in the

Russo-Japanese War The Russo-Japanese War ( ja, 日露戦争, Nichiro sensō, Japanese-Russian War; russian: Ру́сско-япóнская войнá, Rússko-yapónskaya voyná) was fought between the Empire of Japan and the Russian Empire during 1904 and 1 ...

. Fukui was part of the Japanese delegation at the

Versailles Peace Conference The Palace of Versailles ( ; french: Château de Versailles ) is a former royal residence built by King Louis XIV located in Versailles, about west of Paris, France. The palace is owned by the French Republic and since 1995 has been managed, u ...

in 1919. "Heads Bank of Japan; Fukai, Vice Governor, Is Promoted as Hijikata Retires,"
''New York Times.'' June 4, 1935; retrieved 2011-08-22 He was a special appointee of the Foreign Office at the Washington Conference on Limitation of Armament in 1921. Fukui was also a Japanese delegate at the

London Economic Conference The London Economic Conference was a meeting of representatives of 66 nations from June 12 to July 27, 1933 at the Geological Museum in London. Its purpose was to win agreement on measures to fight the Great Depression, revive international trade, ...

in 1933. Fukai was Governor of the Bank of Japan from June 4, 1935 – February 9, 1937. His promotion came after seven years as Deputy Governor. During his term as head of the bank, his chief concern was ensuring confidence in Japan's currency and limiting

monetary inflation Monetary inflation is a sustained increase in the money supply of a country (or currency area). Depending on many factors, especially public expectations, the fundamental state and development of the economy, and the transmission mechanism, it ...

. Ineffective efforts to slow the growth of military spending marked Fukai's term as BOJ governor.Kirshner, Jonathan. (2007).

Notes

References

* Hardacre, Helen and Adam L. Kern, eds. (1997). ''New Directions in the Study of Meiji Japan.'' Leiden: Brill. ; * Kirshner, Jonathan. (2007). ''Appeasing Bankers: Financial Caution on the Road to War.'' Princeton: Princeton University Press. ; 1871 births 1945 deaths Governors of the Bank of Japan Japanese bankers People from Gunma Prefecture {{Japan-business-bio-stub