Japan's 'top financial diplomat' Masatsugu Asakawa from the country's Ministry of Finance
- Global imbalances will be discussed as priority at next year's G20 meeting
- Addressing global imbalances fits extremly well with core mandate of G20
- We should recognise there is large room for cooperation between countries with current account surplus, deficit to address global imbalances
- Gone are the days when currency rates were drivenly mostly by changes in current account balance
- In today's world, exchange-rate movements are driven largely by capital flows
- Japan exporters don't necessarily lower export retail prices now even when yen depreciates
You may be wondering why he is the country's 'top financial diplomat'. Asakawa heads the department at the MoF that (amongst other duties) decides when the Bank of Japan will intervene in currency markets. In most other of the G20 countries central banks make decisions themselves when to intervene. not in japan (which is not to say there is close consultation and cooperation between the BOJ and MoF on such decisions).
