Renowned Japanese Economist Takatoshi Ito Dies at 74

New York, Sept. 23 (Jiji Press)–Internationally renowned Japanese economist Takatoshi Ito, a professor at Columbia University, died on Saturday at the age of 74, his office said Tuesday. The cause of his death has not been disclosed. Ito, a leading researcher on macroeconomics and international finance, had been undergoing treatment for an illness. After graduating from Hitotsubashi University’s Faculty of Economics, he obtained a master’s degree in economics at a graduate school of the Japanese national university. He then earned a doctoral degree in economics at Harvard University. He served as senior adviser in the International Monetary Fund’s Research Department and Japanese deputy vice minister of finance for international affairs. He then took up teaching at the University of Tokyo before becoming a professor at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs in 2015. An early advocate of central banks adopting inflation targets, Ito took a critical stance toward the Bank of Japan’s erstwhile reluctance to adopt such a price goal. He served as a private-sector member of the Japanese government’s Council on Economic and Fiscal Policy between 2006 and 2008, calling for boosting economic growth through structural reforms and accommodative monetary policy. In 2008, then Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda submitted Ito’s nomination as BOJ deputy governor to the Diet. But the appointment failed to win approval from the Japanese parliament as it became a political bargaining tool. Ito was floated as a possible candidate as BOJ governor to succeed Masaaki Shirakawa, who served as the top Japanese central banker between April 2008 and March 2013, and his successor Haruhiko Kuroda, who was in the post for about 10 years until April 2023. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]