May 28 07:16 AM US/EasternTOKYO, May 28 (AP) - (Kyodo)—The government plans to nominate Kazuhito Ikeo, an economics professor at Keio University, as a member of the Bank of Japan's policy board, government sources said Wednesday.
The government is expected to present Ikeo's nomination, together with the reappointment of Shunichi Nagata as the governor of the Deposit Insurance Corp. of Japan, to a joint meeting of party representatives at the upper and lower houses of the Diet Thursday morning, they said.
Takashi Sasagawa, chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Rules and Administration from the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, and his House of Councillors counterpart, Takeo Nishioka, from the biggest opposition Democratic Party of Japan, confirmed that the nominations, which require parliamentary approval, will be discussed at the joint meeting.
On Tuesday, the government failed to propose the nominations as the names of Ikeo and Nagata were leaked to the press and reported beforehand, angering Nishioka.
Nishioka and other DPJ lawmakers remain opposed to the reported appointments of Ikeo and Nagata for their respective posts.
The 55-year-old Ikeo, if approved by both chambers of the Diet, will take one of the nine seats at the central bank's interest rate-setting committee.
The BOJ's Policy Board normally consists of the governor, two deputy governors and six other members, who are picked widely from the private sector and academia.
But now the decision-making body lacks two members as a result of recent political wrangling over the selection of the bank's executives.
Nagata, 64, is a former Ministry of Finance bureaucrat. His term of office at DIC is due to expire in late June.
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