New BOJ governor appointed
(From The Japan Times April 11 issue)

日銀人事、白川総裁で決定

To the belated, if only partial, relief of Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda and financial market players, the position of governor of the Bank of Japan, which had been empty since BOJ chief Toshihiko Fukui's tenure ended March 19, has finally been filled.

The Diet has approved the government plan to promote BOJ Deputy Gov. Masaaki Shirakawa to the top position. But one of the BOJ's two deputy governors' positions remains vacant because the Democratic Party of Japan and two other opposition parties opposed the government's nomination of Mr. Hiroshi Watanabe, a former vice finance minister for international affairs.

The Diet's approval of Mr. Shirakawa as new governor has allowed both Mr. Fukuda and Japan to save face. It enabled Mr. Shirakawa to attend the meeting in Washington of central bankers and finance ministers from the G-7 industrialized nations April 11 as head of the BOJ. If Japan had not appointed the new BOJ governor in time, other industrialized nations might have lost their trust in Japan as a partner in the field of monetary policy.

The BOJ, however, is still in an unusual predicament in that it remains short of a deputy governor. It is regrettable that the appointment of the BOJ's top three officials became a political football for the ruling and opposition forces. The resulting confusion casts a shadow on the independence of the nation's central bank.

Most of the blame goes to Mr. Fukuda. It is he who insisted that a former Finance Ministry official should serve as BOJ chief even though Mr. Shirakawa was regarded as a suitable candidate. The prime minister failed twice to gain the Diet's approval of his plan to make a former vice finance minister a new BOJ chief.

Yet DPJ leader Ichiro Ozawa also deserves much blame. Insisting on the removal of Finance Ministry influence on the BOJ, Mr. Ozawa failed to offer an objective judgment on whether Mr. Watanabe, who has experience in international financial matters, is qualified to serve as a BOJ deputy governor.

空席になっていた日銀総裁のポストにようやく、総裁代行の白川方明副総裁が昇格した。これで、ワシントンで開かれる主要7ヵ国財務省・中央銀行総裁会議（G7）に新総裁が出席できることになり、日本と福田首相の面目は保たれた。だが、副総裁のうち一人に渡辺博史前財務官が就任する案についてはまだ同意が得られていない。

この混乱については福田氏に大きな責任がある。白川氏が総裁候補の資格ありと見られていたにもかかわらず、福田氏が元財務事務次官の候補者を持ち出し、参院で2度にわたり不同意となったのだ。だが、民主党の小沢代表にも非がある。小沢氏は国際財政問題で経験のある渡辺氏の就任に難色を示しているが、客観的な反対の根拠を挙げていない。