Interview with Hiroshi Watanabe

Hiroshi Watanabe

Governor and Chief Executive Officer
Japan Bank for International Cooperation(JBIC)
Former Vice Minister of Finance for International Affairs, Japan

Biography

Hiroshi Watanabe is the Governor, CEO of the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC), Japan’s policy-based financing institution for international financing.

As the Governor, CEO of the JBIC, Mr. Watanabe is steering its operations to fulfill JBIC’s mission of contributing to the sound development of the Japanese and international economies. In the past, he served as Vice Minister of Finance for International Affairs in the Ministry of Finance (MOF). In that capacity, he was responsible for conducting all international affairs of MOF, including foreign exchange stabilization, foreign development assistance and the
international monetary system, and attended a number of international conferences across the world, ranging from G7 summits to the meetings of the World Bank, IMF, APEC and other official international organizations.

After joining MOF in 1972, his professional career centered around taxation and international affairs. He also served as executive secretary to Minister of Finance Kiichi Miyazawa in the late 1990s. After leaving MOF, he took to teaching as professor of the Graduate School of Commerce and Management, Hitotsubashi University.

Mr. Watanabe received an LLB at the University of Tokyo and an MA in Economics at Brown University.