REPEAT: MNI: PRESS: Japan Govt Plans To Reappoint BOJ Kuroda

Repeats Story Initially Transmitted at 06:34 GMT Feb 12/01:34 EST Feb 12

     TOKYO (MNI) - Prime Minister Shinzo Abe plans to reappoint Haruhiko Kuroda

to a second five-year term as Bank of Japan Governor, allowing him to accomplish

the thorny task of guiding low inflation to a stable 2% under the aggressive

easing program launched in April 2013, Japanese newspapers reported during the

weekend.

     Abe has said he has confidence in Kuroda's leadership in reflating the

economy.

     The BOJ has said it will maintain massive asset purchases and super-low

interest rates until it achieves the 2% inflation target but it also faces the

need to fine-tune its policy stance as protracted easing is squeezing profit

margins for lenders and reducing fixed-income investment returns for pension

funds.

     The government is expected to nominate Kuroda as the BOJ chief later this

month so that both chambers of the Diet can approve the nomination before

Kuroda's term ends on April 8, the press reports said.

     Given the ruling coalition's majority in both houses, the re-nomination

would likely to be approved easily.

     If Kuroda, 73, were reappointed, he would become the first BOJ governor to

serve two terms since Masamichi Yamagiwa, who held the post from 1956 to 1964.

     Prime Minister Abe has said in parliamentary testimony that he has

"complete trust" in Kuroda's skills as a central bank chief, based in part on

his having served as a senior Ministry of Finance policymaker and having managed

a large international organization.

     In 2013, Kuroda cut short his term as the president of the Manila-based

Asian Development Bank and returned to Tokyo to become BOJ governor.

     There have been no press reports as to who will replace the two deputy

governors, Kikuo Iwata, 73, a former economics professor, and Hiroshi Nakaso,

64, a career central banker. Their five-year terms end March 19.

     The Prime Minister's Office is likely to look for candidates for the

deputies, one from among university professors or government economists and the

other from the central bank.

     For the purpose of continuing large-scale easing, Masayoshi Amamiya, 62,

appears to be among top candidates. Amamiya is the BOJ executive director in

charge of monetary policy. He has been responsible for drafting many of the

bank's monetary policy measures, including the policies on quantitative and

quality easing and negative interest rates.

     Another candidate may be Etsuro Honda, 63, a key economic adviser to Abe

who is currently Japan's ambassador to Switzerland.

     Honda was among the economics professors who advised Abe during the 2012

Lower House election campaign that returned Abe to power. Honda argued then that

raising the amount of money available for economic activity through expansionary

monetary and fiscal policies should correct the strong yen and help the nation

overcome deflation, a policy approach Abe adopted.

--MNI Tokyo Bureau; tel: +81 90-4670-5309; email: max.sato@marketnews.com