was a Japanese businessman, central banker, the 25th Governor of the Bank of Japan (BOJ) during a period in which Japan became the world's largest creditor nation.Kilborn, Peter T
"Japan Official Unable to Be At Group of 7,"
''New York Times.'' March 29, 1989; Greenhouse, Steven

''New York Times.'' September 27, 1988; excerpt, "Mr. Sumita has voiced frustration that Japan makes the fifth-largest contribution and thus has the fifth-largest voice in the monetary fund, even though it has the second-largest economy among I.M.F. members. He wants Japan to become the second-largest contributor and have the second-largest voice, ranking only behind the United States"; retrieved 2011-08-17

Early life

Sumita was born in

Gunma Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, 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 Square kilometre, km2 (2,456 Square mile, sq mi). Gunma P ...

Career

In the 1960s, Sumita was made director of the Banking Bureau within the Japanese

Ministry of Finance A ministry of finance is a part of the government in most countries that is responsible for matters related to the finance. Lists of current ministries of finance Named "Ministry" * Ministry of Finance (Afghanistan) * Ministry of Finance and Ec ...

. He gained international experience as president of the semi-official Japan Export-Import Bank (JEXIM). Sumita was Governor of the Bank of Japan from December 17, 1984 to December 16, 1989, having previously served as its deputy governor from 1979 to 1984. In September 1988, he represented Japan at a meeting of the

Group of Seven The Group of Seven (G7) is an intergovernmental political forum consisting of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States; additionally, the European Union (EU) is a "non-enumerated member". It is officiall ...

(G7) in Bonn. In March 1989, he was the head of Japan's delegation at meetings of the G7, the

International Monetary Fund The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is a major financial agency of the United Nations, and an international financial institution, headquartered in Washington, D.C., consisting of 190 countries. Its stated mission is "working to foster glo ...

and the

World Bank The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans and grants to the governments of low- and middle-income countries for the purpose of pursuing capital projects. The World Bank is the collective name for the Inte ...

. According to

Finance Minister A finance minister is an executive or cabinet position in charge of one or more of government finances, economic policy and financial regulation. A finance minister's portfolio has a large variety of names around the world, such as "treasury", ...

Ryutaro Hashimoto was a Japanese politician who served as the Prime Minister of Japan from 1996 to 1998. He was the leader of one of the largest factions within the ruling LDP through most of the 1990s and remained a powerful back-room player in Japanese politi ...

, Sumita "served during a very difficult time". Sumita was often blamed for the easy monetary policies of the Bank of Japan, which gave rise to the Japanese asset price bubble of the late 1980s. Subsequent research has however exonerated him, as the Bank of Japan deputy governor Yasushi Mieno and the Bank of Japan's director of the banking department, Toshihiko Fukui, created the asset bubble using a clandestine policy tool called '

window guidance Window guidance ( ja, 窓口指導) or informal guidance, is an informal policy instrument used to regulate the supply of credit in an industry or sector. Window guidance typically involves the use of benevolent compulsion in order to regulate t ...

' of whose existence the governor was not informed by them.

Selected works

In a statistical overview derived from writings by and about Satoshi Sumita, OCLC/

WorldCat WorldCat is a union catalog that itemizes the collections of tens of thousands of institutions (mostly libraries), in many countries, that are current or past members of the OCLC global cooperative. It is operated by OCLC, Inc. Many of the O ...

encompasses roughly 8 works in 10+ publications in 3 languages and 30+ library holdings. WorldCat Identities

澄田智 1916- Sumida, Satoshi 1916-
/ref> * 財政投融資: 昭和 34年度 (1959) * 忘れがたき日日七十五年: 澄田智回想錄 (1992) * 多国籍企業の実態: 外務省多国籍企業調查団報告書 (1973)

Notes

References

* Brown, James Robert. (1999). ''The Ministry of Finance: Bureaucratic Practices and the Transformation of the Japanese Economy.'' Westport, Connecticut: Quorum Books.
OCLC 39033542
* Werner, Richard A. (2003). ''Princes of the Yen: Japan's Central Bankers and the Transformation of the Economy.'' Armonk, New York: M.E. Sharpe.
OCLC 471605161
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sumita, Satoshi 1916 births 2008 deaths Governors of the Bank of Japan