I would first like to express my thanks for the warm words of welcome from Dr. Hölscher, Permanent Undersecretary of the Ministry of Finance of Hessen, Dr. Raettig, Deputy Mayor of the City of Frankfurt, and Mr. Shigeeda, Consul-General of Japan. I also extend my sincere gratitude to Professor Gerlach of the Institute for Monetary and Financial Stability, who has made today’s speech possible.
The Bank of Japan (Slide 1) stationed its representative in Berlin from 1919, just after World War I, and established its representative office here in Frankfurt in 1956. Frankfurt is a unique city in the world, with two central banks, the Deutsche Bundesbank and the European Central Bank (ECB) (Slide 2).