its mandate of maintaining price and financial system stability ( bank of japan 2021 ; wakatabe 2021, section ii. a. ). reflection # 4 : research is essential, and economics is essential to research, but that is not the whole story as i have explained, the relationship between economics and central banks has been a twoway street. john hicks argued that the dynamics of money and the history of monetary economics are closely related to each other. he said monetary theory " belongs to monetary history " in a sense, because " a large part of the best work on money is topical " and " throughout the whole time - - back before ricardo, forward after keynes - - money itself has been evolving " ( hicks 1967, pp. 156 - 57 ). recent developments are characterized by closer international intellectual cooperation. a good example is japan's fight against deflation : influential economists such as paul krugman, ben bernanke, and lars svensson have proposed a wide variety of plans to end deflation ( krugman 1998 ; bernanke 1999 ; svensson 2001 ). people at cjeb have also contributed to this debate ( ito, patrick, and weinstein, eds. 2005 ). their research helped the bank of japan to adopt its 2 percent inflation target in 2013. so, research is essential and economics is essential to research. but that is not the whole story. monetary policy should be grounded in sound economic principles and data, but applying these principles and gathering data require certain skills. in other words, monetary policy has two aspects, " science " and " art " ( with " art " encompassing both technology and judgment ). this is where central bank economists and researchers step in. 8 they are first translators of academic analysis to policymakers. i can attest that no policymaker can keep up with stateof - the - art academic research. one function of the " translator " is to select relevant material in november 2022, carl walsh and athanasios orphanides, honorary advisers to the bank's institute for monetary and economic studies, and i discussed this and other aspects of research at central banks. see orphanides, walsh, and wakatabe ( 2023 ). from the vast sea of research. but they are also engineers. they must gather data and information. while central banks have used real time financial data, the covid - 19 pandemic has highlighted the importance of alternative economic data, including high - frequency data, textual data

summary of an article entitled risk disclosure by financial institutions published in the bank of japan quarterly bulletin of february 1997 bank of japan, communication, 28 / 2 / 97. introduction public disclosure by financial institutions has long provided information about business performance through the publication of financial statements. in recent years, however, a number of financial institutions have come to focus on disclosure of a wider range of information, including their management policies. this is partly attributable to the expansion of derivatives transactions, which has made risk management techniques increasingly important in the management of financial institutions, and which has thereby encouraged financial institutions to improve such techniques. accordingly, individual financial institutions have been motivated to reveal voluntarily their risk exposures and risk management methods in order to win a favorable assessment from market participants. disclosure thus brings into play a check mechanism inherent in financial markets ( hereafter referred to as the market check mechanism ) that disciplines management of financial institutions, and thereby helps to enhance the efficiency and transparency of the markets and to stabilize the financial system. this report examines the disclosure of information on risks of financial institutions, with an overview of the current practices and future issues. it is intended to serve market participants, the beneficiaries of the information disclosed.