Masaaki Shirakawa on his ‘unease’ about 2% inflation targets and lessons from Japan

Former BoJ head speaks about the need to understand banking, make contingency plans and current policy constraints

Credit: Lucy Stewart

You held a number of positions at the Bank of Japan (BoJ) working in different areas well beyond monetary policy. How much importance do you place on central bankers understanding ‘the business’ of central banking, rather than just monetary theory?

Knowing the central bank business is quite important. I have some unease with a recent tendency for the debate on monetary policy to dominate the debate on central banking, or monetary policy becoming synonymous with central banking. A central bank is

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