Japanese bank boss wins approval

Japan's parliament has approved Masaaki Shirakawa as governor of the central bank after rejecting the government's first two candidates.

The opposition-controlled upper house supported the acting governor and the lower house is expected to do likewise.

The main opposition party had rejected the first two choices on the grounds they were not sufficiently independent.

Mr Shirakawa's first job was to explain Wednesday's decision to keep interest rates unchanged at 0.5%.

The Bank of Japan made its latest decision to hold rates before the vote in parliament. Mr Shirakawa chaired the meeting in his capacity as acting governor.

Deputy rejected

The battle between the government and the opposition is not over, because the upper house has rejected the nomination of Hiroshi Watanabe, a former deputy finance minister, as one of the bank's two deputy governors.

Mr Shirakawa took over as acting governor when Toshihiko Fukui retired on 19 March and the government nominated him for the post of governor on Monday.

He was questioned by both houses of parliament on Tuesday.

The government has been keen to get its candidate approved in time to send him to the G7 meeting that begins in Washington on Friday.

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