Japan's lower house of parliament approved yesterday the government's nominee for Bank of Japan (BoJ) chief, setting the stage for a political showdown with less than a week left in the current governor's term.
The approval came a day after the opposition-controlled upper house rejected Toshiro Muto, a deputy governor at the central bank. The opposition said Muto's long history as a former bureaucrat at the Ministry of Finance would undermine the bank's independence.
"The next governor should be able to dialogue with the markets and the financial world, have the power to preserve the bank's independence, and have the presence to project Japan's interests on the international stage," Democratic Party lawmaker Masaharu Nakagawa said ahead of the vote. "The government's choices do not satisfy these criteria."
But the ruling Liberal Democrats, who control the more powerful lower house, defended the choice of Muto.
"The governor has the duty to uphold the bank's independence according to bank law. It doesn't matter what that person's background is or where they have worked," said Takumi Nemoto of the ruling party.
The stalemate in the Diet is a major embarrassment to the government, coming at a time when fears are growing about a global slowdown and central banks around the world are trying to work together to calm jittery markets.
Bank of Japan Governor Toshihiko Fukui will step down on Wednesday. The appointment of his successor needs approval from both houses of parliament.
Muto, 64, was nominated for the top spot last week.
The lower house also approved the government's nominees for the bank's two deputy governor positions. The upper house approved one of the two on Wednesday, former BoJ executive director Masaaki Shirakawa, 58.
Shirakawa, a Kyoto University professor, is likely to step in to serve as interim bank chief if the government and opposition cannot come to an agreement on the appointments.
Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda's popularity ratings have been dropping lately, particularly over the scandal-plagued defense ministry's mishandling of a military ship's crashing with a fishing boat. Many Japanese are eager to see new political leadership.
Public opinion has been mixed over the imbroglio. Newspaper editorials expressed concern over possible delays in the appointment of new governor.
The Nikkei Shimbun called for politicians to act quickly given the global financial turmoil.
"The international financial crisis appears grave, given that the US and European central banks having stepped in with emergency rescue packages," the paper said in an editorial. "Japan has an international duty to select the next governor quickly."
Polish presidential candidates offered different visions of Poland and its relations with Ukraine in a televised debate ahead of next week’s run-off, which remains on a knife-edge. During a head-to-head debate lasting two hours, centrist Warsaw Mayor Rafal Trzaskowski, from Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s governing pro-European coalition, faced the Eurosceptic historian Karol Nawrocki, backed by the right-wing populist Law and Justice party (PiS). The two candidates, who qualified for the second round after coming in the top two places in the first vote on Sunday last week, clashed over Poland’s relations with Ukraine, EU policy and the track records of their
UNSCHEDULED VISIT: ‘It’s a very bulky new neighbor, but it will soon go away,’ said Johan Helberg of the 135m container ship that run aground near his house A man in Norway awoke early on Thursday to discover a huge container ship had run aground a stone’s throw from his fjord-side house — and he had slept through the commotion. For an as-yet unknown reason, the 135m NCL Salten sailed up onto shore just meters from Johan Helberg’s house in a fjord near Trondheim in central Norway. Helberg only discovered the unexpected visitor when a panicked neighbor who had rung his doorbell repeatedly to no avail gave up and called him on the phone. “The doorbell rang at a time of day when I don’t like to open,” Helberg told television
‘A THREAT’: Guyanese President Irfan Ali called on Venezuela to follow international court rulings over the region, whose border Guyana says was ratified back in 1899 Misael Zapara said he would vote in Venezuela’s first elections yesterday for the territory of Essequibo, despite living more than 100km away from the oil-rich Guyana-administered region. Both countries lay claim to Essequibo, which makes up two-thirds of Guyana’s territory and is home to 125,000 of its 800,000 citizens. Guyana has administered the region for decades. The centuries-old dispute has intensified since ExxonMobil discovered massive offshore oil deposits a decade ago, giving Guyana the largest crude oil reserves per capita in the world. Venezuela would elect a governor, eight National Assembly deputies and regional councilors in a newly created constituency for the 160,000
North Korea has detained another official over last week’s failed launch of a warship, which damaged the naval destroyer, state media reported yesterday. Pyongyang announced “a serious accident” at Wednesday last week’s launch ceremony, which crushed sections of the bottom of the new destroyer. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un called the mishap a “criminal act caused by absolute carelessness.” Ri Hyong-son, vice department director of the Munitions Industry Department of the Party Central Committee, was summoned and detained on Sunday, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported. He was “greatly responsible for the occurrence of the serious accident,” it said. Ri is the fourth person