/www.bloomberg.com/ Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi may delay naming a new central bank chief until next month because he hasn't found a candidate to replace Masaru Hayami, who steps down in March, the Nihon Keizai newspaper said.
``The middle of next month is okay for the decision,'' the paper cited Koizumi as saying at a press briefing for Japanese reporters in Moscow.
Finance Minister Masajuro Shiokawa had earlier said Koizumi may select the next Bank of Japan governor before the start of the parliamentary session on Jan. 20, and ahead of a Paris meeting of Group of Seven finance ministers and central bankers, Nikkei said.
Koizumi, who has called for the next BOJ head to be ``aggressive'' in helping reverse four years of falling prices that have sapped growth in the world's second-largest economy, could be trying to build anticipation, an economist said.
``He may want to wait until the last minute to create a positive surprise to increase his popularity,'' said Masaaki Kanno, a former Bank of Japan official and now head of the research at J.P. Morgan Securities Asia Ltd.
Koizumi drew an approval rating of 61 percent in an October survey of voters, up 17 percentage points from an August poll, according to the Nihon Keizai newspaper. The survey was taken after Koizumi became the first Japanese prime minister to visit North Korea and appointed Heizo Takenaka as his Financial Services minister to tackle the country's bad loan problem.
A Koizumi aide said the prime minister has never announced when he planned to name a successor to Hayami, whose five-year term expires March 19.
``The government hadn't specified any time for the announcement and I can't confirm'' if it's happening next month, Misako Kaji, Koizumi's deputy press secretary, said in Tokyo.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda last week told reporters the government doesn't need to nominate a new central bank governor before the Diet session starts and can put the decision off until anytime before Hayami is scheduled to step down.