Kuroda has been an advocate of looser monetary policy in Japan. His February 2013 nomination by the incoming government of the Prime Minister Shinzō Abe had been expected. Also nominated at the same time were Kikuo Iwata – "a harsh critic of past BOJ policies" – and Hiroshi Nakaso, a senior BOJ official in charge of international affairs, as Kuroda's two deputies. The former governor, Masaaki Shirakawa, left in March 2013. 2013 "There is plenty of room for monetary easing" in Japan, Kuroda said in a February 2013 interview, adding that the BOJ could go beyond purchasing government bonds to include corporate bonds "or even stocks". The yen, which "has fallen 10% against the dollar since Abe began his campaign in November", also fell on the news of Kuroda's nomination. However, the new governor was "expected to use his experience as Japan’s top currency official until 2003 to rebut that Tokyo is using easy monetary policy to drive the yen lower, triggering a war of competitive currency devaluation". Bloomberg quoted Stephen Roach, a senior fellow at Yale University, as saying about Kuroda's goals: “It’s a strong pledge from a well-intended man, but I’m not convinced it’s going to work." When Kuroda was asked the same question in his assumption of office's press conference on March 21, Kuroda said the BOJ's role is to stabilize prices, and stabilizing exchange rates is the role of the Ministry of Finance. He also said that BOJ's "Quantitative and Qualitative Monetary Easing" policy was not intend to devalue the yen, aiming to grow out of deflation by targeting inflation. Although there was opposition from developing countries, the policy was accepted by the other developed countries in the G20 summit. However, G20 members emphasized to Japanese policymakers that Japanese policy should be directed at domestic goals while highlighting the importance of a Japanese effort to reduce government debt. 2016 In early 2016 after a stretch of global market weakness, Kuroda led Japan's move into negative interest rates. The BOJ had already pushed its balance sheet from 35% to 70+% of GDP since 2013 and was continuing to buy ¥80 trillion of securities each month. “Risks were growing that the slowdown in the Chinese, emerging and resource-producing countries, which has caused volatility and instability in financial markets since the beginning of the year, may hurt confidence among domestic companies,” Kuroda was quoted as saying at the time of the interest-rate cut.
