A special lecture by Haruhiko Kuroda, Governor of the Bank of Japan, was organized by the Faculty of Economics and held at the South Hall, Mita Campus on June 20.
After the opening address by President Atsushi Seike, Governor Kuroda gave a lecture titled “Overcoming Deflation: Theory and Practice.” He discussed the various measures that have been implemented by the Bank of Japan thus far, such as the quantitative and qualitative monetary easing of 2013 and the Quantitative and Qualitative Monetary Easing with a Negative Interest Rate policy implemented in January of this year, and assessed the causes for the flattening of the Phillips Curve in Japan.
He concluded by saying that Japan’s experience of battling with persistent deflation since the second half of the 90s has provided a valuable case study for both academic research and central banks, and by making use of this experience, we have been able to make significant progress in research and actual monetary policies, despite remaining gaps between the two. Going forward, he asserted that the combined efforts between academia and the central banks will produce important benefits to both sides.
The lecture was followed by a Q&A session in which five students raised questions, and Governor Kuroda elaborated on each in length. The special lecture concluded with a closing address by the Dean of the Faculty of Economics, Shinsuke Nakamura.
The hall was filled with students from the Faculty and Graduate School of Economics and Keio faculty and staff members who listened attentively and took notes from start to end. The lecture was also broadcast live to an audience in a separate venue.