Governor of the Bank of Japan. In December 2025 he said Japan's "underlying inflation [is] steadily approaching 2%", pointing to record corporate profits, mounting labour shortages, back-to-back years of bumper wage rises and fast-rising inflation expectations. He has raised rates only gingerly, but has signalled that the BoJ's policy of negative real (inflation-adjusted) interest rates is nearing its end. The BoJ's nominal rate stands at 0.75%.
His monetary tightening has put the central bank on a collision course with Takaichi Sanae's government, which favours fiscal expansion. Ms Takaichi has called rate hikes "stupid". Her mentor, Abe Shinzo, ended a similar conflict in 2013 by forcing the BoJ into submission.
When a lot of remedies are suggested for a disease, that means it can't be cured.