
TOKYO At the height of the Asian financial crisis, Japan called for the establishment of an Asian version of the International Monetary Fund to help restore financial stability to the region. However, in the face of strong opposition from the U.S. and a reluctance to support it from China, the Asian Monetary Fund never got off the ground.
Twenty years on, Eisuke Sakakibara, Japan's top international finance bureaucrat at the time, or "Mr. Yen"as he is also known, sat down with the Nikkei Asian Review to reflect on the AMF and discuss some lessons for the future.