Power Issue 2012 Jo Lee - JO LEE Magazine

EXCLUSIVE
Masaaki Shirakawa
Bank of Japan
Governor
By Susan Berger
Marketing Editor / Special Assignment
New York / San Francisco / Hong Kong / London / Tokyo / Rome / Toronto
Masaaki Shirakawa worked at the Bank of Japan for 34 years
before leaving in 2006 to teach at the Kyoto University
School of Government. He returned to the bank when he
was appointed Governor in 2008. Mr. Shirakawa has been
Chair of the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) Asian
Consultative Council since 2010, and Vice-Chairman of the
Board of Directors of the BIS since 2011.
Mr. Shirakawa received a B.A. in Economics from the
University of Tokyo and an M.A. in Economics from the
University of Chicago. He held numerous positions at the
Bank of Japan, gaining experience both in the domestic and
international spheres. In 2008, the Japanese Parliament
vetoed two nominations for the position of Governor of the
bank, and subsequently appointed Mr. Shirakawa.
When Japan’s asset bubble burst in the early 1990s, Mr.
Shirakawa was one of the first policymakers to recognize the
seriousness of the problem. In 1993, he wrote an internal
report to top Bank of Japan officials predicting that Japanese
banks would most likely incur substantial losses from bad
loans, and forecasted a credit crunch and liquidity crisis.
Since 2009 Mr. Shirawaka has been a member of the Group
of Thirty, a private, nonprofit international body whose
representatives from the private and public sectors and
academia aim to expand understanding of international
economic and financial issues.
Mr. Shirawaka’s term as Governor ends in 2013. He is
eligible for reappointment by the cabinet if approved by
both chambers of Parliament.
JL
Jo Lee Power 2012 45