TOKYO: The head of the International Monetary Fund was due in Tokyo on Friday, where she will meet Japan's finance minister and the central bank chief for talks likely to be dominated by Europe's debt crisis.
IMF chief Christine Lagarde, on a trip that has also taken her to Russia and China, is scheduled to meet Japanese Finance Minister Jun Azumi on Saturday and hold a press conference in Tokyo before flying to Hawaii for the Asia Pacific Economic Co-operation forum.
Azumi said Friday that Japan, the second-biggest stakeholder in the IMF after the United States, hopes Lagarde will explain how the organisation plans to address the deepening sovereign debt crisis in Europe, Kyodo news reported.
Azumi said he "would like to exchange views over the European situations over the past week", particularly noting events in Italy.
Lagarde is expected to meet Bank of Japan governor Masaaki Shirakawa and financial services minister Shozaburo Jimi late Friday.
In Beijing, Lagarde called for greater political clarity in Athens and Rome after an alarming rise in Italy's borrowing costs heightened fears that it could be the next euro state to suffer a debt blow-up.
Lagarde, a former French finance minister, has warned that Asian economies were not immune to the crisis, saying the world risked a "downward spiral" if it did not pull together to tackle the problem.
Japan has so far purchased almost 3 billion euros in bonds issued in four auctions by the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF), the continent's bailout fund, since the beginning of the year.
Europe has been discussing establishing a special purpose investment vehicle to persuade China and other potential contributors to sign up, and is exploring the possibility of linking it to the IMF.
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