Masatsugu Asakawa

Masatsugu Asakawa (born 1958), by career a Japanese civil servant, is the president of the Asian Development Bank (ADB). Asakawa, who took office on 17 January 2020, is the 10th president of ADB.[1] He was formerly special adviser to Shinzo Abe, prime minister of Japan, and to Taro Aso, the deputy prime minister of Japan and minister of finance. He was also formerly the vice minister for international affairs in the Ministry of Finance in Japan.

Masatsugu Asakawa
10th President of the Asian Development Bank
Assuming office
17 January 2020
SucceedingTakehiko Nakao
Special Adviser to the Prime Minister and the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance
Prime MinisterShinzo Abe
MinisterTaro Aso
Vice Minister of Finance for International Affairs
In office
2015–2019
MinisterTaro Aso
Personal details
Born1958 (age 61–62)
Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan
NationalityJapanese
Alma materTokyo University (BA)
Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Princeton University (MPA)
OccupationCivil servant

Early life

Born in the Shizuoka Prefecture of Japan, Asakawa attended Faculty of Economics, University of Tokyo, graduating with a BA in 1981.[2] He joined the Ministry of Finance in Japan the same year. Asakawa later studied at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University in the United States, graduating with an MPA in 1985.[2]

Work with government

A brief summary of Masatsugu Asakawa's career in the Ministry of Finance in Japan is as follows:

  • 2000–2002: Regional Financial Cooperation Division, International Bureau
  • 2002–2004: International Tax Policy Division, Tax Bureau
  • 2004–2006: Foreign Exchange Markets Division
  • 2006–2007: Development Policy Division
  • 2007–2008: Director for Co-ordination Division, International Bureau
  • 2009–2013: Deputy Vice Minister for International Affairs
  • 2012–2013: Senior Deputy Director-General, International Bureau and Executive Assistant to Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister, Ministry of Finance
  • 2013–2014: Deputy Vice Minister for Policy Planning and Co-ordination
  • 2014–2015: Director-General of the International Bureau
  • 2015–2019: Vice Minister for International Affairs with responsibilities for all international policies of the Japanese Ministry of Finance including G20/IMF issues, foreign exchange rate policy,[3] and development assistance.

President of Asian Development Bank

On 2 December 2019, it was announced that Asakawa had been unanimously elected by Board of Governors of Asian Development Bank (ADB) as the 10th president of the Bank.[4] The Government of Japan nominated Asakawa as a candidate for position of president ADB in September 2019.[5] The former ADB president, Takehiko Nakao, announced that he would retire as ADB president on 16 January 2020 so Asakawa took up his position as ADB president on 17 January 2020.[6][7]

Other positions

Between 1989 and 1992 Asakawa was seconded by the Japanese Ministry of Finance to serve as an Executive Assistance to the fifth president of the Asian Development Bank, Kimimasa Tarumizu, in Manila.

Asakawa has also worked in various positions in other international agencies. Between 1999 and 2000 he served as head of the Technical Assistance Management Unit in the Fiscal Affairs Department of the International Monetary Fund. He has also held several positions at the Committee on Fiscal Affairs, OECD while concurrently serving in his duties at the Ministry of Finance including:

  • 2002–2004: Co-Chair for Board for Co-operation with Non-OECD Economies
  • 2002–2004: Co-Chair for Forum on Harmful Tax Practices
  • 2011–2016: Chair for Committee on Fiscal Affairs.

Asakawa also served as executive assistant to the prime minister during the period of the Aso Cabinet (2008–2009).

He served as visiting professor at the Graduate School of Economic Science, Saitama University in Tokyo from 2006 to 2009,[2] and at the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, University of Tokyo from 2012 to 2015.[2]

gollark: SMH my head, just microwave the scönes?
gollark: Also, it really should be capable of searching a few hundred thousand nodes and JS is clearly just being hilariously inefficient, but if I use WASM I could write a better Rust implementation.
gollark: *But* I could probably make it pick positions based on a heuristic to maximize the amount of nearly-lines it has and to minimize the opponent's.
gollark: So the initial simple minimax thing didn't work well because it couldn't search deep trees because combinatorial explosion.
gollark: Which I guess would come under "more computing resources". But anyway.

References
  1. ADB, 'New ADB President Masatsugu Assumes Office', 'News release, 17 January 2020.
  2. "Masatsugu Asakawa elected ADB president". The Jakarta Post. News Desk. 3 December 2019. ISSN 0215-3432. Retrieved 14 January 2020.
  3. In 2016, the Financial Times described Asakawa as "Japan's top currency official"; see Japan’s Asakawa: will look at how to respond to market', Financial Times, 24 June 2016.
  4. ADB, 'Masatsugu Asakawa Elected ADB President', News release, 2 December 2019.
  5. 'Japan eyes ex-top currency diplomat Masatsugu Asakawa as next head of ADB', The Japan Times, 17 September 2019.
  6. ADB, 'Announcement of Intent of Resignation by ADB President Takehiko Nakao', News release, 17 September 2019.
  7. Masatsugu Asakawa, 'My Vision for ADB', 1 October 2019.
Positions in intergovernmental organisations
Preceded by
Takehiko Nakao		 President of the Asian Development Bank
2020–present		 Succeeded by
Incumbent
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