I’ve been with the Central Bank of Japan for four years, and I’ve held a few different positions. Most recently, I served as an analyst in the Financial System and Bank Examination Department, and I quickly realized that I would benefit from a deeper understanding of international markets, global finance, and the interconnectedness of central banks across countries.
I came to Yale SOM to learn from the most knowledgeable experts in the world when it comes to financial crises, like Timothy Geithner, Andrew Metrick and Bill English. After the Global Financial Crisis in 2008, as well as the Japanese asset bubble crisis in the 1990s, it has become particularly apparent how critical regulation and supervision are for financial stability.
The Systemic Risk curriculum is well thought out, exposing us to diverse topics related to current policy issues. Macroprudential Policy, a course co-taught by four professors, all with central bank and crisis fighting experience, is one of my favorite courses. They pushed us to ask a lot of questions and to look at regulation with a macro-perspective. It made me think about my own jurisdiction, and new ideas that could be applied.
My classmates are very diverse. We’re all interested in systemic risk, but the paths we’ve taken are quite different. One classmate has been working in crisis management, while others are experienced in statistics and accounting. There are some who’ve been bank inspectors. They were all affected by the most recent crisis, but their central banks’ institutional designs and responses have been very different.
I was used to viewing things from my own perspective, based on my career at Bank of Japan. Now I’ve realized that every country’s financial structure is different. An approach that fits one country may not necessarily be appropriate for another. Hearing these viewpoints shared firsthand by people who’ve lived them has been super helpful. I’m looking forward to keeping in touch with my classmates, both professionally and personally. We’ll all be working on the financial stability problems of tomorrow.
When you come from a central bank environment, most of the time, you work with fellow central bankers and you get used to approaching issues in a certain way. But at Yale SOM, I’ve interacted with PhD students, MBAs, and undergraduates taking courses here. In talking to students who work in impact investing or who are interested in social mobility, I’ve started to think more about how decisions made by central banks go far beyond the banking sector. To me, that has been the beauty of Yale—you’re introduced to a truly diverse community.
