Eisuke Sakakibara’s flights of fancy

SEEMINGLY, the only thing to be more buoyant than the yen this winter has been the public profile of “Mr Yen”. That, in his market-moving days, was the nickname attached to the charming Eisuke Sakakibara, a former deputy minister at Japan's finance ministry. Since leaving the ministry in September, Mr Sakakibara and his opinions seem to have featured even more frequently in Japan's daily news broadcasts. So it was not a shock when, in November, the finance ministry threw its weight behind his bid to become the next boss of the IMF. Now comes talk in Tokyo that Mr Sakakibara's real ambitions lie rather closer to home.