Sitting in a hotel room and looking half asleep, one of the most powerful people at the International Monetary Fund has just one thing to say: “The jet lag is something that kills me.”
Naoyuki Shinohara, the IMF’s deputy managing director, was in Bangkok to meet the resident representatives of the organisation, part of a campaign to position it as more “friendly” to Asia.
People in the region are wary to this day about the IMF, which helped bail out Southeast Asian nations after the tom yum kung financial crisis that began in Thailand in 1997. It provided billions of dollars of funding but also a lot of bad advice.
The mishandling of the response, which the IMF also accepts was its fault for enforcing a one-shoe-fits-all policy, made it look like a monster in the eyes of some. Politicians and others since then have helped cement that notion, leading to a reluctance by Asia to participate in the work of the IMF.
But this is hardly a helpful attitude, says Mr Shinohara. He believes that Asian nations need to change their stance if they want to remain active players on the world stage.
“The global economy is internationalising so much that Asia cannot live alone, and interconnectivity will increase [the closeness] further. Whether you like it or not you have to raise your voices. Whether you like it or not, you have to show more interest in what’s going on in the global scene,” he says during a break from a busy round of meetings.
It is therefore “inevitable”, he says, that people in Asia will have to play a bigger role in global institutions, not just the IMF but others as well. Despite their usual quiet nature, “countries in Asia would need to raise their voices in the global scene”.
Mr Shinohara, the highest-ranking Asian in the IMF, feels that unless Asian nations participate further, it is unlikely that they will be able to stake a claim to the top position at the organisation, which typically draws its heads from Europe and the United States.
The incumbent managing director, Christine Lagarde of France, will be in office until July 2016, and then calls for an Asian to head the organisation are certain to be heard.
Mr Shinohara, who has been in the No. 2 position since 2010, says there is no disputing the fact that Asia is a global power that is on the rise.
“Asia will continue to grow and we all know that it will surpass the G7 pretty soon, by 2030, and it will be the biggest force of the world economy. The question is whether the current institutional setup reflects those dynamic changes and the answer is that the organisation has not caught up with what’s happening in Asia,” he admits.
However, there are two sides to the story, he adds.
First, it takes time for any big institution to make changes, and the IMF has been working to change the weighting it gives Asia in the global economy.
“But at the same time it has something to do with the interest we show, our interest in global economic issues. Have the countries in Asia shown enough interest in managing the global economic situation?” he asks rhetorically.
The anti-IMF sentiment that has persisted since 1997-98 means that Asian nations have shied away from discussions where their contribution could have been helpful, especially since the 2008-09 crisis that began in the developed world.
“The countries in this region could have played a much more active role in the discussions on the global financial architecture,” says Mr Shinohara.
Although his name has been mentioned as a possible candidate for the top IMF post, the Japanese bureaucrat is still not sure if he would want to be one of the candidates.
“I’ve been at the IMF for three years and have gained a lot more experience than I would have imagined, but whether I need more or not would be something I would have to think about in the future,” he says.
A humble man who eschews the likes of Armani and Rolex for a modest suit and a Casio wristwatch, Mr Shinohara says the work has not been easy during these tough times.
“I consider myself to be both lucky and unlucky to be working during this period,” he admits, saying it has been like falling from the frying pan into the fire.
Having worked at the Ministry of Finance in Japan during the Lehman Brothers crisis, he moved to the IMF in 2010 when the global economy was still in a tailspin.
“I can’t track all of them,” he replies when asked how he keeps track of the 188 member countries of the IMF, while at the same time pointing a finger at the huge folder on his table and at his colleagues, saying they keep him informed and up to speed.
But dealing with each country and its individual problems is not an easy task, and these days it sometimes robs him of sleep, he admits.
Having learned from the mistakes of the Asian crisis, he says, the IMF now does more to understand the problems of each country and then fix those problems on an individual basis.
Currently, he says, despite the prophecies of doomsday, the global financial markets have calmed down dramatically, although with a very weak economic growth and huge uncertainties, it remains a challenging period.
“I am lucky that I can experience these challenges and unlucky that I have to deal with all these things that keep me busy all the time,” he says.
Negotiation is an essential skill as the organisation still needs to get its message across about possible ways to handle problems, while at the same time ensuring that the troubled country in question and its people do not suffer unduly.
An unapologetic public servant, Mr Shinohara says that although his job is a tough one, he enjoys every moment because it gives him the opportunity to meet people and absorb knowledge from all across the world.
“I’m not a banker, I’ve never worked in banks,” he says when someone remarks that he doesn’t talk or look like one. “I was a public servant when I was with the Ministry of Finance in Japan. Now I’m working for the IMF and I’m a public servant for the world.”