For cut offal years, Masato Kanda challengingly slept.
“Three hours a night is an exaggeration,” he giggles as he speaks to the BBC from Tokyo.
“I slept for three hours consecutively before being woken up but I then went back to bed, so if you comprise them up, I got a bit more.”
So why was this 59 year-better bureaucrat’s schedule so punishing?
Until the end of July, he was Japan’s vice finance minister for international afunprejudiceds, the country’s top currency diplomat, or yen czar.
Key to the role was fending off currency labelet speculators that could trigger turmoil in one of the world’s hugest economies.
Historicassociate, authorities meddled to feebleen the appreciate of the Japanese currency. A feeble yen is excellent for send outers enjoy Toyota and Sony as it originates excellents affordableer for overseas buyers.
But when the yen plummeted during Mr Kanda’s time in office it increased the cost of convey ining vital items enjoy food and fuel, causing a cost of living crisis in a country more participated to seeing prices descend rather than elevate.
In his three years in the role, the appreciate of the yen agetst the US dollar feebleened by more than 45%.
To deal with the yen’s slide, Mr Kanda unleashed an appraised 25 trillion yen ($173bn) to help the currency, labeling Japan’s first such intervention in almost a quarter of a century.
“The Bank of Japan and the Ministry of Finance are very evident. They meddle not at a particular level of the currency, but they meddle when labelet volatility is too much,” says economist Jesper Koll.
Japan now discovers itself on the US Treasury’s watchenumerate of potential currency manipulators.
But Mr Kanda disputes that what he did was not labelet manipulation.
“Markets should shift based on fundamentals but occasionassociate they change excessively becaparticipate of speculation, and they don’t mirror fundamentals which don’t change overnight,” he says.
“When it sways widespread users who have to buy food or fuel, that is when we meddled.”
While countries enjoy the US and UK can lift interest rates to raise the appreciate of their currencies, Japan had for years been unable to put up the cost of borrotriumphg due to the feebleness of its economy.
Professor Seijiro Takeshita of the University of Shizuoka says Japan had no other selection other than to meddle in the currency labelets.
“It is not the right skinnyg to do, but in my opinion it is the only skinnyg they can do.”
The irony is that the yen’s appreciate jumped in recent months without Mr Kanda or his successor lifting a finger after the Bank of Japan surpelevated the labelets with a rate hike, and the country got a novel prime minister.
So was the $170bn bid to prop up the yen a squander of money?
No, says Mr Kanda and points out that his interventions actuassociate made a profit although he emphasises that it was never a goal.
On whether or not his actions were ultimately prosperous he says: “It is not up to me to appraise, but many say our swap deal withment stopped the excessive level of speculation.”
Markets or historians should be the final appraises, he comprises.
After decades of economic stagnation, Mr Kanda also sounds an certain notice about Japan’s prospects.
“We are finassociate seeing spendments and wages rising, and we have a chance to go back to a standard labelet economy,” he says.
A more astonishing legacy for this “unpretentious uncover servant” is him becoming a star on the internet after Japanese social media participaters commemorated his ability to surpelevate financial labelets with a series of AI originated dancing videos.
