RIEB Discussion Paper Series No.2025-29

Title

Takatoshi Ito: Scholarship on Japan's Economy Transformed

Abstract

Takatoshi Ito, who passed away in September 2025, was a leading scholar of macroeconomics and international finance. This column, written by a group of friends and colleagues, outlines his many contributions in a lifetime of research, teaching and policy-making in Japan, the United States and around the world. His work is particularly notable for challenging the widespread perception that standard economic analysis is somehow ill-suited for understanding the Japanese economy. Indeed, using the discipline's rigorous tools, he illuminated challenges that Japan faced earlier and more acutely than other countries – including population decline and ageing, ballooning government debt, the zero lower bound and unconventional monetary policies, real estate bubbles and their collapse, and the banking sector's problem of non-performing loans.

Keywords

Asian economies; Exchange rate fluctuations; Foreign exchange intervention; Inflation targeting; International finance; Invoicing currency; Japanese economy; Macroeconomics; Monetary policy; Takatoshi Ito; Zero interest rate policy

JEL Classification

E52, E58, F14, F31, G15, O53

Inquiries

Kosuke AOKI
Graduate School of Economics, The University of Tokyo, JAPAN

Alan AUERBACH
Department of Economics, University of California, Berkeley, U.S.A.
National Bureau of Economic Research, U.S.A.

Charles Yuji HORIOKA
Research Institute for Economics and Business Administration,
Kobe University, JAPAN
Rokkodai-cho, Nada-ku, Kobe
657-8501 Japan
Phone: +81-78-803-7036
FAX: +81-78-803-7059
Institute of Social and Economic Research, Osaka University, JAPAN
Asian Growth Research Institute, JAPAN
National Bureau of Economic Research, U.S.A.

Anil KASHYAP
University of Chicago Booth School of Business, U.S.A.
National Bureau of Economic Research, U.S.A.

Tsutomu WATANABE
Graduate School of Economics, The University of Tokyo, JAPAN

David WEINSTEIN
Department of Economics, Columbia University, U.S.A.
National Bureau of Economic Research, U.S.A.