“There are many socially desirable but privately not yet profitable investment opportunities in Japan.” – how Dr. Nishimura contributes to the development of Ja-panese economy and what brings satisfaction.

Dr. Kiyohiko G. Nishimura, Member of the Policy Board, Bank of Japan, Tokyo, Japan

It is difficult to imagine how the policy of a country deve-lops and evolves. It is even more difficult to imagine peo-ple behind these decisions. We had the chance to meet Dr. Nishimura, a humble and knowledgeable personality with great values, who has recently been appointed to contribute to the monetary policy of Japan.
We met Dr. Nishimura in his office at the Bank of Japan. We listened attentively and sometimes astonished be-cause of the variety of his former engagements in univer-sity research, in the political area and as consultant of large corporations. An interesting discussion evolved around different approaches of eastern and western cultures concerning duties, sacrifices, satisfaction and happiness – it was a great pleasure to talk to a man from whom we could learn in all the different fields.
Dr. Nishimura has had a long and successful academic career creating a large selection of research, books and recommendations on economic development of the stag-nating Japanese economy. Today, working as Member of the Policy Board, he left the academic career and now focuses on the monetary policy of the country.

You can enjoy part of our discussion in the following statements and might read more about Dr. Nishimura’s interesting life and thoughts in our book “MyImpact”.

Dr. Kiyohiko G. Nishimura’s selected quotations:
“My satisfaction in mathematics and economics comes from the enjoyment of the beauty of the logic. When it comes to the environment it is more about the internal consciousness.”

“I used to travel a lot, as a kind of economic, academic and casual observer. I visited the Grand Canyon twice within ten years. The second time the view was much worse, the air full of particles coming from the polluted city of Los Angeles. At the same time the heavy usage of the waters of Colorado River in the United States caused problems downstream (even in Mexico) – these things made me see the connections in the world, also between countries.”

“Since Japan is totally surrounded by sea, we sometimes think that we are not so much connected to the world. But we are more than ever.”

“I do care about what happens with the world, with my and with other countries. I believe it is a human respon-sibility to care.”

“There are many socially desirable but privately not pro-fitable investment opportunities in Japan, e.g. pocket parks, solar cells, conversions of industrial sites. The basic problem is that those who should invest are not the only ones who directly benefit from clean air, reduction in global warming etc.. Therefore, during my academic years, we proposed “Socially Oriented Investment Trusts” to solve this problem and give the Japanese economy a push after more than 10 years of stagnation.”

“I am not a social democrat. But I do strongly believe that there is such a thing as social responsibility.”

“Peace is something a lot of us take for granted. But it’s not and it takes a lot of effort to have it and keep it. I am the last generation who remembers the effects of war. In my childhood I experienced many friends growing up in poverty. It’s mostly older people who experienced the last war who are very careful about policy making and law in this area. Young people do not have the experience and the instincts anymore.”

„I am an academic. To be involved in actual policy making is kind of a dream, but it’s also a great responsibility. I think in this function I really need to think twice before I make decisions and act.”

“In my case one cannot speak of sacrifice. Or rather in my case a kind of sacrifice is equal to satisfaction. Maybe this is a more oriental perception; it means the satisfac-tion through trust of the people who called me, responsi-bility for decisions and obligation to do my best to serve the country and its people. It is a very demanding and fulfilling feeling.”

Some background on Dr. Kiyohiko G. Nishimura:
Dr. Kiyohiko G. Nishimura is Member of the Policy Board, the Bank of Japan. He received his B.A. and M.A. from the University of Tokyo, and his Ph. D. (1982) from Yale Univer-sity. He was Arthur M. Okun Research Fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C., before joining the Faculty of Economics of the University of Tokyo in 1993 and teaching there as Associate Professor (1983-1994) and Professor (1994-2005).
Dr. Nishimura was jointly appointed as Executive Research Fellow of the Economic and Social Research Institute of the Cabinet Office of the Government of Japan between 2003 and 2005, before joining the Bank of Japan on April 8, 2005. His research area spans widely from economic theory such as mathematical economics and microecono-mic foundation of macroeconomics, to management stu-dies about topics such as real estate markets and e-busi-ness of automobile distribution.
He received the Nikkei Prize in 1993 for his book Imperfect Competition, Differential Information, and Microeconomic Foundations of Macroeconomics; the Japan Economist Prize in 1997 for his book Macroeconomics of “Price Revo-lution”; and the Japan Association of Real Estate Sciences Prize in 2005 for his book Economic Analysis of Property Markets. He was also winner of Japan-Economic-Asso-ciation-Nakahara Prize in 1998 for his international contri-bution to mathematical economics and economic theory.
He is now a senior advisor of the Asian Economic Panel and a member of the editorial board of several interna-tional academic journals in economics and management sciences. He also held business positions before joining the Bank of Japan: he sat in the Advisory Board of the Fujitsu Research Institute (Japan) and he was an aca-demic advisor of Recruit Co. (Japan) and Investment Property Databank (U. K.).

Some background on the Policy Board of the Bank of Japan:
The Bank of Japan, as the central bank of Japan, decides and implements monetary policy. The Bank’s monetary policy is aimed at contributing to the sound development of the national economy through the pursuit of price sta-bility, as stipulated in Article 2 of the Bank of Japan Law. The Law stipulates that monetary policy shall be decided by the Policy Board at Monetary Policy Meetings (MPMs). At MPMs, the Board first discusses the economic and fi-nancial situation and then decides various matters rela-ting to monetary policy, including the following: (1) the guideline for money market operations; (2) the official discount rate; (3) reserve requirement ratios; (4) the Bank’s view of economic and financial developments; and (5) the types and the terms and conditions of bills and bonds eligible for money market operations. Money market operations—the Bank’s day-to-day provision and absorp-tion of funds in the market—are carried out based on the guideline decided at each MPM. Monetary policy aims at achieving price stability through these operations, there-by contributing to the sound development of the national economy.

If you would like to engage with the work Kiyohiko G. Nishimura or get to know more about his work at Bank of Japan please visit www.boj.or.jp,
or, for more opportunities, contact joanna.stefanska@myimpact.ch or wolfgang.hafenmayer@myimpact.ch directly.