The Bank of Japan, the OECD, and Beyond Reflections from a lifetime’s work

This book provides an insider's account of how macroeconomic policies in the United States, Japan and major European countries were carried out and how the OECD and the author either as its senior official or a Japanese central banker dealt with international trade issues, protectionism, globalisation, regional integration and other related issues since the 1960s. Employing an informal tone, the author offers a critical review of the successes and failures of the economic policies followed by these countries in the international setting which prevailed during this period. This book will interest economists, international businesspersons, journalists and historians.

Chapter 1: Introduction.- Chapter 2: Prologue.- Part 1: Internal and External Equilibrium under the Bretton Woods System .- Chapter 3: Japanese Economic Policy Management under the Bretton Woods System.- Chapter 4: The Internal vs External Dilemma: West German and Japanese Episodes.- Chapter 5: Discipline in Reserve Currency Countries: The United Kingdom and the United States .- Chapter 6: Frameworks for International Monetary and Economic Co-operation under the Bretton Woods System.- Chapter 7: My Work at the OECD Monetary Division in the Early 1970s .- Part 2: Japanese Economic Policy Management and Balance of Payments Adjustment under the Floating Exchange Rate System .- Chapter 8: Japanese Economic Policy and Foreign Exchange Market Management in the Second Half of the 1970s.- Chapter 9: High US Interest Rates and Fiscal and Monetary Policy Mix in Three Largest Economies in the Early 1980s.- Chapter 10: The Plaza and Louvre Accords and Japanese Balance of Payments Adjustment .- Chapter 11: Black Monday 19 October 1987 and its Aftermath.- Chapter 12: Dealing with Japanese and International Policy Issues as Bank of Japan Chief Economist.- Chapter 13: Coping with the Bursting of Japan’s Bubble and External Shocks.- Chapter 14: Japanese Economic Policy Management since the Beginning of the 21st Century .- Part 3: Domestic and International Frameworks for Economic Policy Management .- Chapter 15: Frameworks and Conduct of Monetary Policy in Europe.- Chapter 16: Inflation Targeting and Alternative Monetary Policy Approaches.- Chapter 17: Macroeconomic and Prudential Controls on International Financial Markets .- Chapter 18: The Role and Limits of Multilateral Surveillance .- Part 4: New Challenges for the Global Economy .- Chapter 19: Regionalisation, Globalisation and Social Cohesion.- Chapter 20: OECD Co-operation with Non-Members.- Chapter 21: Welfare, Global Order, Environment and Climate Change .- Chapter 22: Epilogue – Looking for Models in Pursuit of Economic Prosperity.

Kumiharu Shigehara has pursued a distinguished career as both an international civil servant and a Japanese central banker: Bank of Japan Chief Economist, later OECD Chief Economist and subsequently OECD Deputy Secretary-General. He is currently President of the International Economic Policy Studies Association.