The Bank of Japan (BOJ) said that it will promote Tokiko Shimizu, associate director-general of its International Department, to deputy director-general on June 16, in the first appointment of a woman to the central bank's senior post at director-general or deputy director-general level. The role of the deputy director-general is to assist the director-general. Shimizu entered the BOJ in 1987 and served as general manager of its Takamatsu branch in Kagawa Prefecture, western Japan, becoming the first female branch chief at the bank.

The BOJ also said that it will appoint Nami Numoto, head of the accounting division of the Secretariat of the Policy Board, as general manager of its Hakodate branch in Hokkaido, northernmost Japan, on June 16. Numoto, who joined the bank in 1989, will become the second woman in a branch general manager post, after Shimizu.