Long-term, the region should go beyond the North American Free Trade Area (NAFTA) model and go the way of the European Union, he said at a lecture in Manila.
"Our long-run objective should be the creation of an Asian monetary union with a single currency. I continue to believe that Asia in general, and East Asia in particular, should strive to form a monetary union in the long run," Kuroda added.
He said intra-East Asian regional trade now accounts for 54 percent of the region's total, up sharply from 35 percent in 1980.
This is higher than the figure in NAFTA and "very much comparable to intra-regional trade in the European Union before the 1992 Maastricht treaty" on monetary union.
"Given this magnitude of intra-regional trade, even small intra-regional exchange rate misalignments can disturb trade and investment flows and could create trade frictions among the regional economies.
Kuroda praised moves by China and Malaysia in July to a managed floating exchange rate regime.
"In the undesirable event of sharp exchange rate adjustment in the future reflecting trans-Pacific imbalances, the East Asian currencies will have to be ready to collectively appreciate vis-a-vis the US dollar while maintaining relative stability among the regional economies, thus minimising the adjustment cost to individual economies," he said.
Kuroda conceded that "the political will to go beyond a free trade area and create an Asian economic community seems to be lacking in Asia."
However, "so long as the economic benefits from regional integration are substantial, political compromises could be eventually arrived at," he said, noting that younger generations of Asians are "free from old nationalistic sentiment" generated by previous wars.