Bank of Japan Board Member Profiles

Reuter has published a special report on the Bank of Japan to go alongside the updated bios of its board members. Here is the new Governor profile:

HARUHIKO KURODA, 68, GOVERNOR – He was plucked from the Asian Development Bank by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to deliver radical reflationary policies at the Bank of Japan. Took office in March. Kuroda had long criticized the BOJ for doing too little, too late to end deflation and boost the Japanese economy. A voracious reader of books ranging from philosophy to detective novels.

Reuters devotes its special report on the Bank of Japan to the bold start to Kuroda’s governorship:

Only weeks before Kuroda joined, the board had voted 8 to 1 against a plan for bold monetary easing. Now, vocally backed by a new prime minister, Kuroda knew the arithmetic had moved in his favor. He was joining the board with two new deputies. They plus two sympathetic veterans on the board gave the new governor a 5-4 edge. But Kuroda wanted unanimous support.

His recipe was radical: double Japan’s money supply in two years, and promise to ignite 2 percent inflation in two years, reversing nearly two decades of falling prices. Investors doubted the cautious BOJ had the stomach; Kuroda calculated that a 9-0 victory would show the BOJ now meant business.

In a two-week whirlwind of meetings, according to people with knowledge of those deliberations, Kuroda won over the four holdouts on the policy board for the biggest attack on stagnation by any central bank in recent years. The campaign kicked off at a secret weekend retreat in downtown Tokyo, inside a former BOJ dormitory.

On April 4, the board gave him his 9-0 win. The degree to which Kuroda delivered on his promise, and the extent of his support, stunned financial markets. The impact was exactly according to script: The yen went into a precipitous slide, Tokyo stocks extended a five-month rally, and government-bond yields fell to record lows.

To read the special report click here and here you can read the BoJ board member bios

via Reuters

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