After five years running the Bank of Japan, Masaaki Shirakawa will get a cash bonus of as much as ¥29.6 million or as little as nothing, depending on how Policy Board members rate his tenure.
The six members who remain when Shirakawa and his two deputies step down on March 19 will grade their former colleagues, according to the BOJ. A maximum rating on a scale of zero to two would give Shirakawa enough to dine at Tokyo's Narisawa — voted Asia's best restaurant — every night for 3½ years, but not enough for the priciest tuna at the Tsukiji market.
The assessment may shed light on members' views of a stint in which Shirakawa failed to pull the nation out of deflation even as he protected the financial system from shocks. The government's nominee to succeed Shirakawa, Haruhiko Kuroda, said this week the BOJ could buy longer-maturity bonds and bring forward open-ended asset purchases due to start next year.