is a Japanese banker and a former
Ministry of Finance government official. He serves as the 31st and current Governor of the
Bank of Japan
The is the central bank of Japan. Nussbaum, Louis Frédéric. (2005). "Nihon Ginkō" in The bank is often called for short. It has its headquarters in Chūō, Tokyo.
History
Like most modern Japanese institutions, the Bank of Japan was fo ...
(BOJ). He was formerly the President of the
Asian Development Bank
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is a regional development bank established on 19 December 1966, which is headquartered in the Ortigas Center located in the city of Mandaluyong, Metro Manila, Philippines. The bank also maintains 31 field office ...
from 1 February 2005 to 18 March 2013.
Early life
Kuroda was born in 1944, in
Ōmuta,
Fukuoka Prefecture, the eldest son of his family. His father was a
Japan Coast Guard officer. As a child he lived in
Yokohama
is the second-largest city in Japan by population and the most populous municipality of Japan. It is the capital city and the most populous city in Kanagawa Prefecture, with a 2020 population of 3.8 million. It lies on Tokyo Bay, south of ...
and
Kobe
Kobe ( , ; officially , ) is the capital city of Hyōgo Prefecture Japan. With a population around 1.5 million, Kobe is Japan's seventh-largest city and the third-largest port city after Tokyo and Yokohama. It is located in Kansai region, whic ...
before settling in
Setagaya
is a special ward in Tokyo, Japan. It is also the name of a neighborhood and administrative district within the ward. The ward calls itself Setagaya City in English. Its official bird is the azure-winged magpie, its flower is the fringed orch ...
,
Tokyo.
He attended
University of Tokyo
, abbreviated as or UTokyo, is a public research university located in Bunkyō, Tokyo, Japan. Established in 1877, the university was the first Imperial University and is currently a Top Type university of the Top Global University Project by ...
from 1963 to 1967, where he studied law and passed the bar examination before graduation. He joined the
Ministry of Finance following graduation, and studied economics at
Oxford University on a Japanese government scholarship from 1969 to 1971. He went on to hold various posts at the Ministry of Finance, culminating in the post of Vice Minister of Finance for
International Affairs (1999-2003). He resigned from the ministry in January 2003 and was appointed Special Advisor to the Cabinet in March 2003. From 2005 to 2013, he served as president of the Asian Development Bank.
Bank of Japan governorship
Kuroda has been an advocate of looser monetary policy in
Japan. His February 2013 nomination by the incoming government of the
Prime Minister Shinzō Abe had been expected. Also nominated at the same time were Kikuo Iwata – "a harsh critic of past BOJ policies" – and Hiroshi Nakaso, a senior BOJ official in charge of international affairs, as Kuroda's two deputies. The former governor,
Masaaki Shirakawa
is a Japanese economist, central banker and the 30th Governor of the Bank of Japan (BOJ), and professor at Aoyama Gakuin University. He is also a Director and Vice-Chairman of the Bank for International Settlements (BIS).
Early life
Shirakawa w ...
, left in March 2013.
2013
"There is plenty of room for monetary easing" in Japan, Kuroda said in a February 2013 interview, adding that the BOJ could go beyond purchasing government bonds to include corporate bonds "or even stocks". The
yen
The is the official currency of Japan. It is the third-most traded currency in the foreign exchange market, after the United States dollar (US$) and the euro. It is also widely used as a third reserve currency after the US dollar and the e ...
, which "has fallen 10% against the dollar since Abe began his campaign in November", also fell on the news of Kuroda's nomination. However, the new governor was "expected to use his experience as Japan’s top currency official until 2003 to rebut
overseas criticism that Tokyo is using easy monetary policy to drive the yen lower, triggering a war of
competitive currency devaluation".
[.] ''Bloomberg'' quoted
Stephen Roach, a senior fellow at Yale University, as saying about Kuroda's goals: "It’s a strong pledge from a well-intended man, but I’m not convinced it’s going to work." When Kuroda was asked the same question in his assumption of office's press conference on 21 March, Kuroda said the BOJ's role is to stabilize prices, and stabilizing exchange rates is the role of the
Ministry of Finance. He also said that BOJ's "
Quantitative and Qualitative Monetary Easing" policy was not intend to
devalue the yen, aiming to grow out of
deflation by
targeting inflation. Although there was opposition from developing countries, the policy was accepted by the other developed countries in the G20 summit. However, G20 members emphasized to Japanese policymakers that Japanese policy should be directed at domestic goals while highlighting the importance of a Japanese effort to reduce government debt.
2016
In early 2016 after a stretch of global market weakness, Kuroda led Japan's move into
negative interest rates. The BOJ had already pushed its balance sheet from 35% to 70+% of GDP since 2013 and was continuing to buy ¥80 trillion (over $600 billion) of securities each month. "Risks were growing that the slowdown in the Chinese, emerging and resource-producing countries, which has caused volatility and instability in financial markets since the beginning of the year, may hurt confidence among domestic
apanesecompanies", Kuroda was quoted as saying at the time of the interest-rate cut.
[Nakamichi, Takashi, Megumi Fujikawa and Eleanor Warnock]
"Bank of Japan Introduces Negative Interest Rates" (possibly subscription-only)
Wall Street ''Journal'', 29 January 2016. Retrieved 2016-01-29.
2022
BoJ Kuroda maintained a dovish stance in early 2022 with the Bank of Japan buying unlimited bonds at 0.25bps.
See also
*
Abenomics
refers to the economic policies implemented by the Government of Japan led by the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) since the December 2012 general election. They are named after Shinzō Abe, who served a second stint as Prime Minister of Japa ...
*
Reflation
References
, -
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kuroda, Haruhiko
1944 births
Living people
Alumni of All Souls College, Oxford
Governors of the Bank of Japan
Hitotsubashi University faculty
People from Ōmuta, Fukuoka
University of Tokyo alumni