Against a background of liberalization and deregulation, the Japanese financial system is now undergoing substantial change - a topic of major concern in world financial circles. This book provides up-to-date, detailed information on the present system and its historical background. Prepared by the staff of the Institute for Monetary and Economic Studies, Bank of Japan, and edited by Dr Yoshio Suzuki, the distinguished monetary economist, this survey is supported by the most authoritative data and figures. The book is divided into two parts: Part I outlines features and changes in the Japanese financial system and economy after the Second World War. Part II gives detailed descriptions of various assets, interest rates, financial institutions, and monetary policy.

The monetary side of domestic and international economic policy has generated increasingly intense debate and concern within and among the major industrial countries over the last several years. Recently, the Bank of Japan's Institute for Monetary and Economic Studies brought together leading academics and prominent economists of central banks and international organizations to analyze and discuss the key problems and issues of monetary policy of developed countries. Collected in this volume are their original contributions: eight essays that cover monetary policy in an uncertain world, domestic and international aspects of monetary policy, and policies to overcome stagflation. In particular, they recognize and provide a lively forum for the different views of academic and central bank economists.The essays are "Monetarism in Rhetoric and in Practice," by Milton Friedman; "Monetary Policy in an Uncertain World," by James Tobin; "The Conduct of Domestic Monetary Policy," by Robert Gorden; "Monetary Policy in Postwar Japan," by K. Hamada and F. Hayashi; "Monetary Policy in the Large Open Economy," by Michael Darby; "Alternative Approaches to Exchange-Rate Determination and Some Implications of the Structural Balance-of-Payments Approach for International Macroeconomic Interdependence," by Akihiro Amano; "'Reaganomics' and Credibility," by Thomas Sargent; and "Coordination of Monetary and Fiscal Policies," by Albert Ando.