All about business

Japan’s opposition leader signaled on Sunday that his party was likely to approve the government’s latest nominee for central bank chief, but he called for an election to break a wider political gridlock.

Democratic Party leader Ichiro Ozawa’s comments suggested that an end was in sight to a tussle over who to appoint as Bank of Japan governor, which has embarrassed the government ahead of a G7 meeting in Washington on April 11.

But he also raised the prospect of further wrangling over who should be deputy governor.

Ozawa has made no secret of his desire for an early poll for parliament’s powerful lower house in the hope of ousting the long-ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), and on Sunday he made his pitch in the clearest terms yet.

The political deadlock that has followed since the opposition won control of the upper house of parliament last year led to the first vacancy at the top of the Bank of Japan (BOJ) in 80 years.

Last week the stalemate also blocked the extension of a gasoline tax earmarked for road construction that the Democrats argue symbolizes the LDP’s wasteful spending on vested interests.

“Various problems have emerged and the only solution in a democracy is to seek a mandate from the people,” Ozawa said in an interview with private broadcaster Fuji TV fast payday loans. He made similar comments on public broadcaster NHK the same day.

“It depends on the degree to which the people’s consciousness swells up, but our goal is to see an election as soon as possible, before the (Group of Eight) summit (to be hosted by Japan in July). But at the latest, there must be an election within the year,” he added. 

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