Kuroda attended the University of Tokyo from 1963 to 1967, where he studied law and passed the bar examination before graduation. He joined the Ministry of Finance following graduation, and studied economics at Oxford University on a Japanese government scholarship from 1969 to 1971. He went on to hold various posts at the Ministry of Finance, culminating in the post of Vice Minister of Finance for International Affairs (1999-2003). He resigned from the ministry in January 2003 and was appointed Special Advisor to the Cabinet in March 2003. From 2005 to 2013, he served as President of the Asian Development Bank.

"There is plenty of room for monetary easing" in Japan, Kuroda said in a February 2013 interview, adding that the BOJ could go beyond purchasing government bonds to include corporate bonds "or even stocks". The yen, which "has fallen 10% against the dollar since Abe began his campaign in November", also fell on the news of Kuroda's nomination. However, the new governor is "expected to use his experience as Japan’s top currency official until 2003 to rebut overseas criticism that Tokyo is using easy monetary policy to drive the yen lower, triggering a war of competitive currency devaluation". Bloomberg quoted Stephen Roach, a senior fellow at Yale University, as saying about Kuroda's goals: “It’s a strong pledge from a well-intended man, but I’m not convinced it’s going to work." When Kuroda was asked the same question in his assumption of office's press conference on March 21, Kuroda said the BOJ's role is to stabilize prices, and stabilizing exchange rates is the role of the Ministry of Finance. He also said that BOJ's "Quantitative and Qualitative Monetary Easing" policy does not intend to devalue, aiming to grow out of deflation by targeting inflation. Although there was opposition from developing countries, the policy was accepted by the other developed countries in the G20 summit. However, G20 members emphasized to Japanese policymakers that it must be used domestically while highlighting the importance of a Japanese effort to reduce government debt.

In early 2016 after a stretch of global market weakness, Kuroda led Japan's move into negative interest rates. The BOJ had already pushed its balance sheet from 35% to 70+% of GDP since 2013 and was continuing to buy ¥80 trillion (over $600 billion) of securities each month. “Risks were growing that the slowdown in the Chinese, emerging and resource-producing countries, which has caused volatility and instability in financial markets since the beginning of the year, may hurt confidence among domestic [Japanese] companies,” Kuroda was quoted as saying at the time of the interest-rate cut.