Naoto Shimoda is a General Manager in the Digital Strategy Department at SMFG and SMBC, where he steers group-wide initiatives on digital assets. He is passionate about modernizing money and finance using new technologies, including blockchain and AI.
Prior to his current role, Naoto accumulated over 30 years of policy-making experience at the Bank of Japan (BoJ) and the Ministry of Finance (MoF). He held a range of senior leadership positions, including Deputy Director General of the Payments Department, Director of the International Department, Head of the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision Division, and Chief Representative in Hong Kong covering APAC at the BoJ, as well as Director for International Financial Affairs at the MoF. He also represented the BoJ and the MoF in major global forums, including the CPMI, FSB, FATF, G7 (Co-Chair, Digital Payments Experts Group, 2023), G20, and BIS-Central Banks CBDC coalition. Throughout his career, he worked closely with overseas authorities on major international initiatives, including Project Agorá and other payment infrastructure projects, and contributed to the FSB report The Financial Stability Implications of Artificial Intelligence.
Naoto holds a law degree from Hitotsubashi University and pursued studies in Computer Science at Harvard University.