Japan’s government missed an opportunity to show it is serious about addressing an eye-catching lack of gender equality in positions of power, choosing instead to select only men to take the top three positions at the central bank.
(Bloomberg) — Japan’s government missed an opportunity to show it is serious about addressing an eye-catching lack of gender equality in positions of power, choosing instead to select only men to take the top three positions at the central bank.
The nominations came amid heightened expectations that Prime Minister Fumio Kishida was looking to choose the first female deputy governor in the Bank of Japan’s 140-year history.
The decision means Japan’s central bank will continue to lag its global peers on female diversity. Janet Yellen and Christine Lagarde have already demonstrated their expertise as leaders of the Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank.
“The world may see Japan as not making progress forever,” said Ayako Fujita, Japan Chief Economist at JPMorgan Securities Japan Co. “Japan is also seen as not actively pursuing policies to find answers to the challenge.”
The government tapped Kazuo Ueda to take the helm of the bank and Shinichi Uchida and Ryozo Himino to assist him as deputy governors, according to documents released Tuesday.
The three have different fortes and skill sets. Ueda is a career academic who was trained at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Uchida is a BOJ lifer specializing in system design, and Himino is a former financial services regulator who hails from the finance ministry.
The combination of talents is largely seen by economists as a balanced team to tackle the tricky task of potentially pivoting from a decade of monetary easing.
“It must have been a tough choice regardless of gender, as the new team has to eye policy normalization,” said JPMorgan’s Fujita.
Yet they are also all men over the age of 60 who have climbed one of Japan’s elite career ladders after graduating from the University of Tokyo.
Many economists had predicted the government would name Japan Research Institute Chair Yuri Okina as one of the deputies.
Other women, including BOJ Executive Director Tokiko Shimizu and Sayuri Shirai, were among the names floated as leading contenders.
The BOJ ranked 142nd out of 185 central banks on gender equality last year, according to a report from the Official Monetary and Financial Institutions Forum.
Mari Iwashita, a chief market economist at Daiwa Securities Co., separately points out the difficulty of appointing talents without board experience.
“Rather than suddenly appointing a woman as deputy governor, it would be easier first to increase the number of female board members and then choose an experienced person as deputy governor,” said Iwashita.
She cited the case of Yellen, who headed a regional reserve bank before leading the country’s central bank.
“The BOJ should consider appointments with a more long-term vision,” Iwashita said.
More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com
©2023 Bloomberg L.P.
