Japan MoF names Masatsugu Asakawa as top financial diplomat
Japan’s Ministry of Finance said international policy veteran Masatsugu Asakawa will become the country’s top financial diplomat, whose tasks include co-ordinating with other nations and the IMF as well as arranging currency interventions. Asakawa’s broad network with policymakers both inside and outside Japan puts him in an ideal position to co-ordinate with the Bank of Japan and other nations at a time when the Greek debt crisis threatens to ripple through the world economy.
The appointment of Asakawa on Tuesday also comes as concerns have grown that a further rapid depreciation in the yen could damage Japanese households and small firms by raising import costs, while dollar gains hurt US exporters. Asakawa, 57, who has been director-general of the finance ministry’s international bureau, will take over from Tatsuo Yamasaki, who will retire. His appointment is part of a routine reshuffle and is not expected to bring about a shift in Japan’s currency policy.
The new vice finance minister for international affairs is likely to stick with the G7 and G20 commitment to market-set exchange rates and a policy that does not target currencies. Asakawa currently chairs the OECD Committee on Fiscal Affairs, dealing with an anti-tax avoidance action plan known as the anti-BEPS (Base Erosion, Profit Shifting) directive. Asakawa is close to Finance Minister Taro Aso, having served as executive secretary when Aso was premier in 2008-2009, and as executive assistant when he became finance minister in 2012.
Asakawa joined the ministry in 1981. His previous posts include director of the foreign exchange division for two years from July 2004. He also served as deputy vice minister for policy planning and co-ordination in 2013-14, liaising with the Bank of Japan. Japan last intervened in the markets in November 2011 to stem a strong yen. In 1998, it bought the yen to support the currency, when the country was grappling with the Asian financial crisis and its own banking crisis. Analysts say yen-buying intervention is unlikely unless the dollar spikes to 130 yen. The Japanese currency is now trading around 122.6 yen to the dollar.
