Skip to content

Posts tagged ‘Masaaki Shirakawa’

Apr 2

Bob Baur's Photo

Shinzo’s Samurai – Fighting Deflation in Japan

During a recent visit to the United States, the message of Japan’s prime minister Shinzo Abe to President Obama was “Japan is back!”  This is Abe’s economic battle cry in his fight to end two decades of deflation, meager growth, and economic malaise. And much like Japan’s feudal lords of a bygone era, Shinzo Abe has a trusted advisor ready to lead his country into battle – a samurai, if you will. Shinzo’s samurai, to coin a phrase, is his appointee for the governor or the Bank of Japan, Haruhiko Kuroda.

Governor Kuroda’s first foray will be during this week’s policy meetings of the Bank of Japan. This week’s meetings, Kuroda’s first, will be his initial test to see if he can achieve the results that eluded his predecessor, Masaaki Shirakawa. Kuroda has assumed his own battle cry of sorts, adopting language from the European Central Bank’s Mario Draghi. “Whatever it takes!” That’s what Kuroda says he’ll do to reach a 2% inflation target within two years – a goal imposed by Abe on the central bank. Read more

Nov 20

robin anderson

Land of the Rising Shun – Will a New Japanese PM Push out the Current Central Bank Regime?

That’s not tea brewing in Japan; it’s a bit of a political and economic storm. Oddly though, this isn’t a clash between Yoshihiko Noda, current prime minister of Japan, and Shinzo Abe (Noda’s presumptive successor if current polls are to be believed). Rather, there’s a growing enmity between Abe and the governor of the Bank of Japan, Masaaki Shirakawa. Abe, leader of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), is ahead in current opinion polls and could likely become the next prime minister. He’s also got some pretty bold ideas on monetary policy; bold enough that he’s been getting jabs from Shirakawa, whose term as Japan’s head central banker expires in April 2013. And these statements are causing market movement.

Read more