By Makiko Yamazaki
TOKYO (Reuters) -The Japanese government on Thursday nominated Kazuyuki Masu, a former chief financial officer of trading house Mitsubishi Corp, to join the central bank’s board, an appointment that could make its policy panel less dovish.
Masu would replace former Hitachi executive Toyoaki Nakamura, seen as among the most dovish members of the central bank’s board.
If formally approved by parliament, 66-year-old Masu would begin his five-year term on July 1, as Nakamura serves out his term a day before.
The appointment comes as U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to impose sweeping tariffs worldwide, including on Japan, complicates the BOJ’s plan to continue raising interest rates from still-low levels.
“Nakamura was quite dovish and focused on whether firms become profitable enough to keep raising wages. His successor will probably maintain a neutral stance on policy for the time being,” said Toru Suehiro, chief economist at Daiwa Securities.
“Taken together, the composition of the board will likely become less dovish,” he said.
Masu will fill a post traditionally reserved for a business executive on the Bank of Japan board, which comprises academics, economists, career bureaucrats and senior officials from the finance and corporate sectors.
“It’s good the BOJ will have someone in the board from a trading company, which is a sector that is sensitive to global economic trends,” said veteran BOJ watcher Mari Iwashita.
“We likely won’t know much about his policy leaning immediately. But the global knowledge he will bring will likely help revitalise discussions at the board,” she said.
Masu joined Mitsubishi in 1982 and mainly served finance and accounting positions at the trading house. He retired as CFO in 2022. He is currently a council member of the Japanese Institute of Certified Public Accountants.
The BOJ exited a radical stimulus programme in March last year and raised interest rates to 0.25% in July and to 0.5% in January on the view that Japan was on the cusp of sustainably achieving its 2% inflation target.
Nakamura voted against the BOJ’s decision to end negative rates and the two rate hikes, due to concerns over the potential damage to small and mid-sized firms.
His departure follows the appointment in March of Junko Koeda, an academic known as a fiscal and monetary hawk who succeeded another dovish member, tipping the board increasingly in favour of steady rate hikes.
(Reporting by Makiko Yamazaki, Chang-Ran Kim, Kentaro Sugiyama, Takaya Yamaguchi, Yoshifumi Takemoto; additional reporting by Leika Kihara; Editing by Chang-Ran Kim and Sam Holmes)
