TOKYO - A stalemate deepened Tuesday with only one day to go before Japan's central bank chief steps down as the opposition rebuffed the latest nominee put forward by the government.
Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda is scrambling to avoid a vacancy at the head of the central bank at a time of global market turmoil triggered by a worsening US economy.
But no clear successor was in sight a day before governor Toshihiko Fukui steps down after an eventful five-year tenure, in which he is credited with helping steer the world's second largest economy out of a decade of doldrums.
The government on Tuesday proposed Koji Tanami, head of the Japan Bank for International Cooperation, in the hope that he would be approved by parliament on Wednesday, lawmakers said.
But a senior leader of the opposition, which controls one house of parliament, immediately disapproved of the choice of Tanami because of his previous position as a top finance ministry bureaucrat.
"I'm worried that it will probably be very difficult to agree," Kenji Yamaoka, parliamentary affairs chief of the main opposition Democratic Party, told reporters.
The ruling coalition had to come up with a new name after the opposition, which controls one house of parliament, voted down its first choice of Toshiro Muto, currently a Bank of Japan deputy.
The opposition had argued that Muto, another former top finance ministry bureaucrat, was too cosy with the government to ensure the independence of the Bank of Japan.
The government, hoping to sustain Japan's slow but steady economic recovery, has repeatedly pressured the central bank not to raise interest rates, which at 0.5 percent remain the lowest among major economies.
"We're disappointed. In theory it's impossible to agree to Mr Tanami while turning down Mr Muto," Yamaoka said.
Takashi Sasagawa, a senior lawmaker of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, derided the opposition for not giving Tanami a chance. A lower house hearing on the central bank chief is set for 3:00 pm (0600 GMT).
"It's unreasonable to say he's good or no good even before meeting him or listening to him," Sasagawa said.
The opposition won a landmark election victory last year, taking control of the upper house, in a backlash against the government after a string of mishaps.
The opposition has pledged to create a two true-party system in Japan, where the Liberal Democrats have ruled Japan almost continuously for a half-century.
A poll released on Tuesday by the top-selling Yomiuri Shimbun put approval of Fukuda's nearly six-month-old government at its worst yet level of 33.9 percent.
The government came under fire over its support for a fuel tax and over its handling of a crash in which Japan's most advanced destroyer rammed into a tuna fishing boat, killing a father and son.
But the Yomiuri said that the public was also critical of the opposition for stalling the appointment of the Bank of Japan chief.
Only 25 percent of respondents agreed with the opposition's rejection of Muto, while 59 percent disapproved, said the poll of 1,786 voters.
kh-mis-oh/sct/dr/lh
03/18/2008 03:36 GMT