His frustration occasionally flashing through, the normally low-key Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda was unusually expressive Wednesday during his second one-on-one Diet debate with Democratic Party of Japan President Ichiro Ozawa.
Although Fukuda finally received the green light from the largest opposition force for his latest candidate for BOJ chief, Masaaki Shirakawa, the DPJ is dragging its heels to fill the second deputy governor post.
Before giving Shirakawa the nod, the DPJ-led Upper House torpedoed the candidacies of two previous choices largely due to their backgrounds — both were former vice finance ministers. And on Wednesday again, the chamber rejected another former Finance Ministry bureaucrat, Hiroshi Watanabe, as the BOJ's No. 2.