Eisuke Sakakibara Keynote Speaker

Professor Eisuke Sakakibara has spent a lifetime at the heart of international finance. He held the highly influential role of Japan’s Vice Minister of Finance (1997-99) during which time he earned the nickname “Mr. Yen” for his influence over currency markets.

Professor Sakakibara also served as a Special Adviser to the President of the Japan Centre for International Finance from 1983 and 1985.

Originally starting his career in the Japanese Ministry of Finance in 1965, he went on to serve as an economist at the International Monetary Fund from 1971 to 1975. Returning to Japan in 1975 he was appointed as Deputy Director of the First Insurance Division at the Ministry of Finance. In 1981 he was appointed Director of Planning and Research at the International Finance Bureau.

Professor Sakakibara has also made a distinguished contribution to academic economics. He has been Associate Professor of Economics, Saitama University (1977), a Visiting Associate Professor at Harvard University (1980), Professor at Keio University (1999), and Waseda University (2006). As from 2010, he has been serving as a Professor at Aoyama-Gakuin University in Tokyo; he is also the President of the Institute for Indian Economic Studies.