Why then was the schedule of this 59-year-old bureaucrat so harsh?
He served as Japan’s chief currency diplomat, or “yen czar,” and vice finance minister for international affairs until the end of July.
Keeping out currency market speculators who could destabilize one of the biggest economies in the world was crucial to the job.
In the past, governments have stepped in to devalue the Japanese yen. For exporters like Toyota, a weaker yen is beneficial.
However, the collapse of the yen during Mr. Kanda’s administration raised the price of importing necessities like food and gasoline, leading to a crisis in the cost of living in a nation more accustomed to declining rather than rising costs.
In his three years in the post, the value of the yen against the US dollar plummeted by more than 45%.
Mr. Kanda launched an estimated 25 trillion yen ($173 billion) to bolster the currency in an attempt to stop the yen’s decline. This was Japan’s first currency intervention in nearly 25 years.
“The Ministry of Finance and the Bank of Japan are quite transparent. They step in when market volatility becomes excessive rather than when the currency reaches a specific level, according to economists.
