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Mamoru Ishida
For Mamoru Ishida's latest contributions to The Japan Times, see below:
COMMENTARY / Japan
Feb 20, 2017
Responding to Trump's currency accusations
It's wrong for the U.S. to dictate Japan's monetary policy.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Aug 25, 2014
'Abenomics' needs reform
Abenomics" has made a good start, thanks to the expansionary monetary policy and fiscal expenditures. But it relies too much on monetary policy.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Mar 19, 2013
Finding common ground on the Senkakus dispute
The only realistic way to stabilize Japan-China relations is for both countries to go back to the idea of shelving the Senkaku Islands sovereignty issue.
Jun 22, 2012
An East Asian community?
The leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and Japan, China and South Korea (ASEAN-plus-3) announced in December 2005 their determination to realize the East Asian Community.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 12, 2010
Japan's experience highlights perils for China
Until the global financial crisis hit, China had achieved export-led high economic growth by keeping its currency at an undervalued level. It is now abundantly clear that the growth model is not sustainable. The People's Bank of China reinstated the "managed floating exchange rate regime with reference to a basket of currencies" that it had started in 2005 and suspended in 2008, explaining that "a floating exchange rate draws economic resources to sectors driven by domestic demand." China needs to move to a growth model in which external and domestic demands will be better balanced. The basket of currencies is a device to let the yuan move with the currencies of China's major trading partners, not with the dollar.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 11, 2008
Regional role for China's yuan
It is likely that a renminbi (RMB) area emerges in East Asia.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 31, 2005
Key to a common currency
The Economist magazine forecast in a recent issue that a future multiple reserve currency system could include the Chinese yuan: "The world might drift toward a multiple reserve currency system shared by the dollar, the euro and the yen, or indeed the yuan at some time in the future."
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 10, 2004
Asian currency zone beckons
There is no doubt that the stable renminbi (RMB) exchange rate, pegged at about 8.25 yuan to the U.S. dollar, has helped China's economic development. It has brought about enormous production capacity in the export industries. Meanwhile, the sharp increase in exports to the United States has prompted America to pressure China to revalue the RMB. Earlier this year, Zhou Xiaochuan, governor of the People's Bank of China, said China planned to improve the mechanism for determining the RMB exchange rate.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 10, 2003
China can learn from Japan
China faces mounting pressure to revalue its allegedly undervalued yuan. I am concerned that China could repeat the mistakes that Japan made in exchange-rate policy. China can learn much from Japanese experiences in economic management and currency diplomacy.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 4, 2003
Responsibility for Hiroshima
As Aug. 6 approaches each year, I cannot help wondering how my best friend perished in the atomic bombing of Hiroshima in 1945. Possibly, like many other children, he was burned to death under a collapsed school, where I found the scattered, burned bones of children a few days after the bombing. He was just one of millions of people who had been driven into an impossible situation, with no choice but to die in a war that Japan started.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 22, 2003
Regulation remains a problem
In his policy speech to the Diet earlier this year, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi announced that the government would double foreign direct investment in Japan in five years to increase employment.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 20, 2003
The folly of inflation targets
Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said recently the next governor of the Bank of Japan must take aggressive action to fight deflation, giving rise to expectations of inflation targeting among government and ruling coalition officials. I doubt, however, that inflation targeting will cure deflation. In March 2001, the BOJ raised the balance of commercial banks' current deposits with the central bank to 5 trillion yen to enable banks to increase loans. Continued pressure for easier money from the political community and mass media prompted the BOJ to raise the amount to 6 trillion yen and then to 7 trillion yen, a former BOJ official recalled. The amount now stands between 15 trillion yen and 20 trillion yen, but bank loans have kept decreasing and business investment remains sluggish.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 23, 2002
Reform delays discouraging
Junichiro Koizumi was Japan's first prime minister to receive a mandate to push structural reforms by convincing the public that there would be no economic growth without painful reforms. It remains to be seen, however, whether Koizumi will succeed in his reforms. More than a year after launching his administration, it is still unclear how Koizumi will spur economic recovery, as he depends, in running the government, on the ruling Liberal Democratic Party's major factions, which often resist his reform efforts. This makes public support of his government fragile.
COMMENTARY / World
May 27, 2002
Perils of undervalued yuan
I am concerned that China could repeat Japan's mistakes in economic policy. In Japan's high-growth years, the yen became increasingly undervalued, pegged at 360 to the dollar, while the nation's productivity kept increasing. Exports were profitable and the manufacturing industries built up excess production capacities. Japan's trade surplus grew beyond an internationally tolerable level, leading to the 1985 Plaza Accords, which forced Japan to accept excessive appreciation of the yen and to expand domestic demand.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 1, 2002
Risks in waiting on Koizumi
When he debuted as prime minister, Junichiro Koizumi pledged economic and political reforms, saying there will be "no economic recovery without structural reforms." To implement the reforms, Koizumi said he was ready to overhaul the governing Liberal Democratic Party. I have supported Koizumi's determination, but now I doubt that his plans will put the economy back on recovery track, as he promised. Leading me to this conclusion are a serious defect in his agenda and the recent political chaos.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 17, 2001
A reason to invest in Japan
What is the true nature of the current recession in Japan? Is it cyclical, a result of asset deflation, or has it been caused by the deteriorating competitiveness of this country as an industrial location? These questions must be answered to formulate an effective economic policy. In my view, the economic policy of the past decade has failed to halt the recession because policymakers have misjudged its nature.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 30, 2001
Luring investment to Japan
Japan is a risk for the world economy. Although Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's reform plans are vague and offer no guarantee of results, Japan, and the world as well, depend on the success of the reforms for their prosperity.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 20, 2001
Corporate investment is key
Amid widespread economic uncertainty, some economists prefer a more expansionary monetary policy or inflation targeting. At a recent meeting of the government's Economic and Fiscal Advisory Council, many members called on the Bank of Japan to relax credit restraints even further.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 21, 2000
Japan's missing management
The failure of the department store operator Sogo Co. is a typical case of corporate governance gone awry. It has exposed some of the old problems in Japanese-style management, relations between main creditor banks and corporate clients, and bank regulation by the Finance Ministry. The incident offers valuable lessons concerning the future of the Japanese economic system.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 20, 2000
Time to chase 'two hares'
Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi, citing a popular proverb, says his administration will not "run after two hares": It will first achieve economic recovery and then tackle fiscal reform. The official scenario is that the economy will pick up soon. The question is what will happen next. Without fiscal props, growth might again come to a grinding halt, making it necessary again to prepare large spending packages. Thus the government might end up missing both hares. That is why consumers keep their purse strings tight and why businesses are reluctant to invest in new equipment.

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A statue of "Dragon Ball" character Goku stands outside the offices of Bandai Namco in Tokyo. The figure is now as recognizable as such characters as Mickey Mouse and Spider-Man.
Akira Toriyama's gift to the world