A group of economists and finance professionals from the private sector will today launch what it has termed a "financial NPO" aimed at issuing opinions and recommendations on the nation's financial system.
The establishment of the Council for Financial Innovation is intended to create a nonprofit organization that will promote transparency in the financial system and push for free and fair financial markets in Japan, members said.
The nine founding members include Yuri Okina, senior economist at Japan Research Institute; Hideki Kanda, a professor of law at Tokyo University; Heizo Takenaka, a professor of economics at Keio University; and Toshihiko Fukui, chairman of the Fuji Research Institute.
The council will establish a forum on the World Wide Web by the end of September so that members can post and exchange opinions on such controversial issues as regulation of IT-related businesses and their accountability to financial authorities.
The group will end its activities by 2005, the time by which it believes Japan's transition to a new financial system should be complete. Practical recommendations on two or three issues are expected to be issued by the end of this year.
Tetsuro Nishizaki, chairman of the directors' board, said the current framework for private-sector input on financial policy needs to be improved. Industry groups often find themselves unable to speak out frankly, he said, due in part to the remaining influence of the infamous "convoy system," a postwar government policy that blocks competition among financial institutions.