Kazuo Ueda, a soft-spoken academic with a PhD from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has been nominated as the next Bank of Japan governor.
Ueda, who was a central bank board member from 1998 to 2005, helped put in place forward guidance as a way of influencing spending and investment behavior.
People who know him say he is a pragmatic policymaker-type academic who can adjust his views on monetary policy flexibly.
His academic credentials suggest he is fit for the job, and he is a good listener and a consensus-builder, rather than a leader with a strong view on the direction of monetary policy.
“His style is to discuss monetary policy based on facts and evidence,” said Tetsuya Inoue, Ueda’s staff secretary when he was a central bank board member.
“He won’t rely on a single model because he knows that economic and price developments are very complex. Rather, he uses economic theories as tools to conduct policy flexibly,” Inoue added.
Upon approval by parliament, Ueda will assume the top BOJ post on April 9, chairing his first policy-setting meeting on April 27 to 28.
