Tokyo Stock Exchange Inc. will ask Taizo Nishimuro to stay on as president after its June shareholders' meeting, TSE officials said Friday.

The TSE panel on personnel and remuneration affairs recommended at a meeting Thursday that the 70-year-old, who is also chairman, be allowed to remain president. The bourse's board is expected to give its approval at a meeting next week, they said.

There have been growing calls inside the TSE for Nishimuro to stay on as chief because of his strong personnel connections to key figures in both business and politics, they said.

In addition, brokerages continue to be reticent about sending a replacement from their industry, they said.

If the bourse wanted Nishimuro replaced, it would have to find his successor by April's TSE board meeting.

Nishimuro appears to have decided to accept the unofficial request in light of the probability the TSE will not be able to find a replacement, the officials said.

Last June, Nishimuro, who was then Toshiba Corp. chairman, accepted to chair the TSE board. He left his post at Toshiba.

He assumed the TSE presidency in December after Takuo Tsurushima stepped down over a series of malfunctions in the computerized trading system, including one that forced a halt in trading of all stock and other securities last fall.

The bourse is in the process of trying to revive investor trust in its trading system, which took an additional blow Dec. 8 when the system did not respond to a cancel order from Mizuho Securities Co. after it sent a bungled stock order for staffing company J-Com Co.

Under Nishimuro's leadership, the TSE wants to improve its trading infrastructure by renovating its computer system, they said.