Japan’s government named Makoto Sakurai, a think tank executive with ties to advocates of aggressive monetary policy easing, to join the Bank of Japan’s board, a government document showed on Friday. Sakurai, 70, would replace Sayuri Shirai, a 53-year-old former International Monetary Fund economist and the only female in the nine-member board whose term ends on March 31. Shirai was among four board members who voted against the BOJ’s decision in January to adopt negative interest rates. Her departure is seen tipping the board’s balance more in favor of Governor Haruhiko Kuroda’s strategy of doing whatever it takes to hit his 2 percent inflation target. A former director of the Center for International Finance at Japan’s MSK Research Institute, Sakurai did a stint at Yale University and served as an adviser to the Ministry of Finance and Japanese financial institutions. He now heads Sakurai and Associates International Finance Research Center. Little is known about his views on monetary policy but people familiar with the matter say he has ties with some of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s aides such as Yale University professor Koichi Hamada and ruling party lawmaker Kozo Yamamoto. Both Hamada and Yamamoto are advocates of aggressive monetary policy easing and played a key role in crafting Abe’s “Abenomics” stimulus policies. “Sakurai endorses Abenomics and appears to be close to the government. He also seems to be a strong supporter of aggressive easing,” said Ryutaro Kono, chief economist at BNP Paribas. “He’s likely to support Kuroda if the governor decides to counter yen rises by pushing interest rates deeper into negative territory.” In a conversation on policy and economics between Yamamoto and Sakurai recorded four months after the BOJ unveiled its massive asset-buying stimulus program in April 2013, Sakurai said the central bank needed to stem unwelcome yen rises. “We need to turn the BOJ into a normal central bank that you can find in other countries,” he said, supporting Yamamoto’s idea to revise the law to make 2 percent inflation a binding target. FEMALE BANKER MAY JOIN LATER Sakurai’s appointment needs approval by both houses of the Diet. His addition to the board and Shirai’s exit would produce the first all-male board in almost two decades. Over this period, the BOJ has had a tradition of having one female member on its board. But a ruling party lawmaker said Takako Masai, a female executive at Shinsei Bank Ltd (8303.T), may be chosen to fill another vacancy in the BOJ board that will open up when former banker Koji Ishida’s term expires in June. The Nikkei newspaper reported on Friday that the government will appoint Masai, a former currency trader and an advocate of Kuroda’s aggressive easing steps, to join the board. When asked whether Masai could be a possible candidate to replace Ishida, Takeo Kawamura, chairman of the lower house steering committee, said: “That’s my understanding, though the government didn’t explain it that way.” (Additional reporting by Sumio Ito, Chris Gallagher, Kaori Kaneko and Stanley White; Editing by Richard Pullin and Sam Holmes)
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