Masato Kanda, 59, has retired from his position as Vice Finance Minister for International Affairs, effective Wednesday, and has been appointed a special advisor to the Cabinet. Kanda, who had a pivotal role in managing Japan\u2019s foreign currency exchange policies and international negotiations over the past three years, will now focus on advising the government on global economic matters.<\/p>\n
Kanda\u2019s tenure at the Finance Ministry was marked by his active efforts to combat the depreciation of the yen. He gained prominence for his strategic responses to currency market fluctuations, particularly during critical intervention periods. Notably, in September 2022, Kanda spearheaded Japan\u2019s first yen-buying, dollar-selling intervention in 24 years, aimed at halting the yen\u2019s steep decline. His public statements at the time, including a notable declaration of the government\u2019s readiness to act, underscored Japan\u2019s commitment to stabilizing its currency.<\/p>\n
Under Kanda\u2019s guidance, subsequent interventions occurred in October 2022, and again from April to May and June to July of this year, involving a substantial total of approximately \u00a525 trillion. His approach was seen as a firm message to market speculators that the Finance Ministry was closely monitoring currency movements.<\/p>\n
Masahiro Ichikawa, Chief Strategist at Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management, praised Kanda\u2019s impact, noting that his statements conveyed a vigilant stance from the Finance Ministry. With Kanda\u2019s departure, attention turns to his successor, former International Bureau Director General Atsushi Mimura, 57. Ichikawa anticipates that Mimura will maintain a similar strategic approach.<\/p>\n
Since March, Kanda has also led a panel of experts analyzing Japan\u2019s international payment balance and economic challenges. This group\u2019s recommendations, aimed at bolstering Japan\u2019s global competitiveness, were detailed in a report published on July 2.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Under Kanda\u2019s guidance, subsequent interventions occurred in October 2022, and again from April to May and June to July of this year, involving a substantial total of approximately \u00a525 trillion. His approach was seen as a firm message to market speculators that the Finance Ministry was closely monitoring currency movements.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":413,"featured_media":26972,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[12801,268,15311,15312,904,1825,902],"class_list":["post-26970","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-japan","tag-finance-ministry","tag-japan","tag-kanda","tag-masahiro-ichikawa","tag-masato-kanda","tag-mitsui-sumitomo","tag-yen"],"reading_time":"2 min read","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26970","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/413"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26970"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26970\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26972"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26970"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26970"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26970"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}