Former Bank of Japan Gov. Haruhiko Kuroda

 

The Asian Financial Crisis: Haruhiko Kuroda

Former Bank of Japan Gov. Haruhiko Kuroda has faced many challenges in his more than half-century in the policy field -- the Asian Financial Crisis was one of them.
 
In July 1997, he became director-general of the Ministry of Finance's International Finance Bureau. That same month in Thailand, the financial crisis began.
 
The following year, with the crisis having spread to neighboring countries, Japan announced a $30 billion New Miyazawa Initiative to support them. This became the template for the Chiang Mai Initiative (CMI), a regional currency swap agreement.
 
Kuroda's foremost task at that time was to help Asian countries and establish a financial safety net to contain currency crises. As such, the CMI played an important role. Since its introduction, Kuroda notes, the initiative has been enriched in terms of quality and quantity.
 
The Asian Financial Crisis, however, was just one of many trials the former BOJ chief faced throughout his career. At home, he was tasked with addressing Japan's chronic deflation. "I thought hard about how to reconcile Japan's national interests with those of the world," Kuroda recounts.
 
After completing his 10-year term as head of the central bank last year, Kuroda started a new chapter in his life by going into the academic field. "I would like to share with young people in Japan and abroad my experiences and the lessons I have learned from both my failures and successes," he writes.