Japan's government taps academics Asada, Sato for BOJ board
TOKYO, Feb 25 : The Japanese government on Wednesday nominated academics Toichiro Asada and Ayano Sato to join the Bank of Japan's nine-member board, a document presented to parliament showed, in appointments seen as a gauge of the Takaichi administration's thinking on monetary policy.
Asada, professor emeritus at Chuo University, would replace economist Asahi Noguchi, whose term ends on March 31. Once known as a dove, Noguchi, a former economics professor at Senshu University, voted for the BOJ's past two rate hikes.
Sato, professor at Aoyama Gakuin University, would replace Junko Nakagawa, whose term expires at the end of June. Nakagawa was formerly chair of Nomura Asset Management.
The nominees must be approved by both chambers of parliament.
The choice may affect the BOJ's discussions on the pace and timing of future rate hikes by shifting the composition of the nine-member board, which has increasingly shifted in favour of steady rate increases.
The BOJ ended a decade-long, massive stimulus programme in 2024 and raised rates several times including in December, when it took its short-term policy rate to a 30-year high of 0.75 per cent.
With inflation exceeding the BOJ's 2 per cent target for nearly four years, Governor Kazuo Ueda has signaled the bank's readiness to keep raising rates if its economic projections materialise.
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi has already appointed several reflationists to key government panels including former Bank of Japan Governor Masazumi Wakatabe, heightening the chance she could do so for the openings in the BOJ's nine-member board.
