Leak scuppers Japanese bank job

The Japanese government faces further problems filling a vacancy on the board of the Central Bank after the name of its preferred candidate was leaked.

This caused opposition parties to reject economics professor Kazuhito Ikeo for one of two vacancies.

Opposition parties control the parliament's upper house which must approve all Bank of Japan appointments.

They also rejected two nominees for the post of governor, leaving the job unfilled for three weeks in March.

"The government leaked the information, so we cannot accept the nomination unless the candidate is replaced with someone else," said senior opposition lawmaker, Takeo Nishioka.

One economist expressed concern that Kazuhito Ikeo, an economist with "insight" had been rejected.

"The political chaos is deepening ever more, and that is threatening the independence of the BOJ from politics," said Hideo Kumano, chief economist at Dai-ichi Life Research Institute.

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