Japan nominates ex-Mitsubishi Corp executive Masu to BOJ board | World News

TOKYO, – The Japanese government on Thursday nominated Kazuyuki Masu, a former chief financial officer of trading house Mitsubishi Corp, to join the central bank’s nine-member policy board.

Masu would replace former Hitachi executive Toyoaki Nakamura, seen as among the most dovish members of the central bank’s board.

If formally approved by parliament, 66-year-old Masu would begin his five-year term on July 1, as Nakamura serves out his term a day before.

He will fill a post traditionally reserved for a business executive on the Bank of Japan board, which comprises academics, economists, career bureaucrats and senior officials from the finance and corporate sectors.

Masu joined Mitsubishi in 1982 and mainly served finance and accounting positions at the trading house. He retired as CFO in 2022. He is currently a council member of the Japanese Institute of Certified Public Accountants.

The appointment comes as Trump’s decision to impose sweeping tariffs worldwide, including on Japan, complicates the BOJ’s plan to continue raising interest rates from still-low levels.

The BOJ exited a radical stimulus programme in March last year and raised interest rates to 0.25% in July and to 0.5% in January on the view that Japan was on the cusp of sustainably achieving its 2% inflation target.

Nakamura voted against the BOJ’s decision to end negative rates and the two rate hikes, due to concerns over the potential damage to small and mid-sized firms.

His departure follows the appointment in March of Junko Koeda, an academic known as a fiscal and monetary hawk who succeeded another dovish member, tipping the board increasingly in favour of steady rate hikes.

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