On the 14th of last week, the government submitted to the Diet a plan to appoint economist Kazuo Ueda, a former deliberative committee member of the Bank of Japan, to succeed Kuroda as Governor of the Bank of Japan.

He also proposes to appoint Shinichi Uchida, a member of the Board of Directors of the Bank of Japan, and Ryozo Himino, former Commissioner of the Financial Services Agency, as the two deputy governors.

On the 24th, the Steering Committee of the House of Representatives will listen to the opinions of three candidates for the governor and vice governor and ask questions.

We will inform you of the beliefs and questions of the three members in a flash report on this timeline.

Flow of the hearing

It is the schedule of the House of Representatives Steering Committee.



The policy hearing will begin at 9:30 am, and Mr. Ueda, the presidential candidate, will first give his opinion.

After that, I will be taking questions from members of each party in the early afternoon.



The vice-presidential candidate's hearing will begin at 1:00 pm, and after Mr. Uchida and Mr. Himino will each state their views, they will be asked questions from members of each party.

Point 1 Acceptance of large-scale mitigation measures

This is the point of hearing the message.

First, how do you feel about the Bank of Japan's large-scale monetary easing measures?



The unprecedented large-scale monetary easing under Governor Kuroda corrected the excessive appreciation of the yen and realized a situation without deflation.

Even among experts, there is a view that it had a certain positive effect on the economy and prices.

On the other hand, various side effects have been pointed out due to the prolonged monetary easing.

As a side effect of continued large-scale purchases of government bonds to curb rising interest rates and support the economy, distortions in the bond market have surfaced, such as a decline in the functioning of the bond market.



In addition, due to the purchase of a large amount of government bonds, the balance of government bonds held by the BOJ exceeded 500 trillion yen as of the end of September last year, and it is an unusual situation that the BOJ holds more than half of it, excluding short-term bonds.

Some critics say that this has led to a loosening of the country's fiscal discipline.



Furthermore, as a result of continuing to buy a large amount of ETFs (listed investment trusts) linked to stock indices, the amount of holdings has increased, and the Bank of Japan is exposed to the risk of a decline in stock prices.

Market participants and others have criticized the BOJ for distorting the market, as many Japanese companies actually have the BOJ as their largest shareholder.



How do we deal with these challenges?

And will the current monetary easing continue, or will it be considered for revision?

This is the point that gets the most attention.



Regarding revisions to monetary policy, the focus will be on what to do with negative interest rates and whether to review the framework of so-called "yield curve control," which sets operating targets for long-term and short-term interest rates.

Point 2 Relationship between the government and the Bank of Japan and their respective roles

The second point of the hearing is about the relationship between the government and the Bank of Japan and their respective roles.



Ten years have passed since the government and the Bank of Japan issued a joint statement aimed at overcoming deflation and achieving sustainable economic growth.

The joint statement clearly states that "we aim to achieve the price stability target of 2% as soon as possible," but the 2% price stability target that accompanies wage increases has not yet been achieved.



The joint statement has never been revised over the last ten years, but some experts believe that the BOJ's inflation rate target should be set at around 2% in order to give flexibility to its monetary policy. It has also been pointed out that the goal should be changed from "as early as possible" to a more medium- to long-term goal.



On the other hand, it has been pointed out that if the joint statement were to be revised, there would be widespread speculation that the BOJ would revise its monetary policy, which could lead to turmoil in financial markets.



A "joint statement" by the government and the Bank of Japan states that efforts to restore fiscal consolidation will be promoted to ensure confidence in fiscal management.



However, some people point out that the outstanding amount of government bonds issued has increased sharply over the past 10 years, and that the background to this is the continuation of large-scale monetary easing by the Bank of Japan, which purchases a large amount of government bonds.

Another important point in the policy hearing is how to think about fiscal discipline.



Lastly, if Mr. Ueda takes office, he will be the first post-war governor from an academic background. may be noticed.

About Kazuo Ueda

Bank of Japan governor Kazuo Ueda is 71 years old.

He is one of Japan's leading economists in the fields of macroeconomics and monetary theory.



After graduating from the Faculty of Science at the University of Tokyo in 1974, he pursued research activities at the graduate school of the Faculty of Economics.

He studied at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Graduate School in the United States and obtained his Ph.D.

In 1993 he became a professor of economics at the University of Tokyo.



For seven years from 1998, he served as a deliberative committee member of the Bank of Japan, providing theoretical support for the introduction of the "zero interest rate policy" and the "quantitative easing policy."



After that, he returned to the university as a professor at the University of Tokyo Graduate School of Economics.

Since 2017, he has been a professor at Kyoritsu Women's University.



He is also active outside the university, where he is an outside director of the Development Bank of Japan and a special advisor to the Bank of Japan Institute for Monetary and Economic Studies.

About Mr. Shinichi Uchida

Shinichi Uchida is 60 years old.



After graduating from the University of Tokyo Faculty of Law, he joined the Bank of Japan in 1986 and graduated from Harvard Law School in the United States.

He spent many years in the Planning Bureau, which is responsible for formulating monetary policy.



After serving as the head of the Niigata branch in 2010, he became the head of the Planning Bureau at the age of 49 in 2012, and oversaw the actual implementation of monetary policy for five years.



Governor Kuroda was appointed as Director General, and introduced large-scale monetary easing and negative interest rates to achieve the price target of 2%. I was involved in the formulation of



After that, after serving as the manager of the Nagoya branch, I was appointed as a director in 2018 and was reappointed last year.

About Ryozo Himino

Ryozo Himino is 62 years old.



After graduating from the University of Tokyo Faculty of Law, he entered the Ministry of Finance at the time in 1983, and in 1987 obtained an MBA = Master of Business Administration from Harvard Business School in the United States.



From 2003 to 2006, he was dispatched by the Financial Services Agency to serve as the first Japanese secretary-general of the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision, which is made up of financial supervisory authorities in major countries, and worked on the formulation of new capital regulations.



In 2016, he was appointed as the vice-minister-level Deputy Director-General for International Affairs in the Financial Services Agency's international affairs. I chaired the Standing Committee for the activities.



And for a year from 2020, he served as Commissioner of the Financial Services Agency, and was responsible for providing financial support to companies affected by the new coronavirus.



Since his retirement, he has been a visiting professor at the University of Tokyo's Graduate School of Public Policy, and since last year has been an executive fellow at the think tank NLI Research Institute.