A lot has been said about the nomination of Bank of Japan Gov. Toshihiko Fukui, the events that led to the formation of his team, and the political dynamics behind that decision. Now, with his formal appointment due on Thursday, I would like to point out several tasks the central bank will need to tackle under his leadership.
Over the decades since the war, Japan has experienced various degrees of economic turbulence, ranging from the two oil crises in the 1970s to the asset-inflated bubble of the late 1980s and its collapse in the early 1990s.
For the BOJ, however, managing monetary policy has perhaps never been more difficult than it is today because the nation remains mired in deflationary pressures that emerged in the wake of a decade-long economic slump.