The Paul Volcker Of Japan?

For much of his life, Bank of Japan Governor Yasushi Mieno has been fascinated by sumo, Japan's ancient sport of wrestling. As a struggling student at the University of Tokyo in the lean years after World War II, Mieno lived in a wrestlers' lodge run by the father of a friend. Over the ensuing four decades, he rose to become one of sumo's leading movers and shakers, recently joining the prestigious council that picks champions. But while you would never take the 68-year-old Mieno for anything but a ringside observer, a good measure of his revered wrestlers' legendary determination appears to have rubbed off on him.

Mieno is quickly gaining a reputation as the Paul Volcker of Japan. Although the Tokyo stock market is taking gas as Japan undergoes its worst slowdown in nearly two decades, Mieno is standing firm against his greatest fear: inflation. While he has reduced the discount rate by 1.5 percentage points, to 4.5%, since last summer, he has ignored calls to slash rates another point to rev up stocks and growth (charts).