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Personnel Shakeups at the Ministry of Finance

July 3, 2007
By Ken Worsley


At a press conference today, Finance Minister Koji Omi announced personnel shuffling plans for the Ministry of Finance, to take effect on July 10. First, vice finance minister for international affairs Hiroshi Watanabe will be retiring. Since becoming Japan’s currency boss in July 2004, the yen has steadily weakened, by about 12 percent against the dollar and 20 percent against the euro. Watanabe, however, has refrained from making any market interventions. This policy marked a sharp change from his predecessor, Zembei Mizoguchi, who sold about 35 million trillion yen in 2003 and early 2004.

Watanabe will be repleaced by Naoyuki Shinohara, who is currently the director general of Finance Ministry’s international bureau. His stance on currency issues is not expected to be a departure from that of Watanabe.

In addition, Vice Finance Minister Hideto Fujii, the ministry’s top bureaucrat, is set to be replaced by Hiroki Tsuda, who currently heads up the budget bureau.

There have been no indications in the media yet that Shinohara will take a different stance to currency management than Watanabe has, though NHK News tonight certainly devoted much time to the ‘issue’ of the weak yen and what that means for Japan’s economy - not something ordinarily in the news.

Almost entirely unrelated, but Shisaku’s blog had an excellent writeup on NHK’s coverage of Shinzo Abe’s first six months as Prime Minister.

Filed Under Finance, Fiscal Policy 

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Comments

2 Responses to “Personnel Shakeups at the Ministry of Finance”

  1. BillyBuck on July 4th, 2007 5:00 am

    “Zembei Mizoguchi, who sold about 35 million yen in 2003 and early 2004.”
    …..?

    You mean zillions - dont you?

  2. Ken Worsley on July 4th, 2007 5:11 am

    I meant trillion, actually. Thanks for pointing that out. I think he was going for zillions…

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