The Democratic Party of Japan has asked four members of the Bank of Japan's Policy Board to meet with DPJ lawmakers this month amid pressure for the central bank to increase monetary easing to end deflation.
Kouhei Ohtsuka, a leader of the ruling party's official policy group on countering deflation, requested that the board members attend the group's next meeting, he told reporters Wednesday. They had not yet responded, he said.
Political pressure on the BOJ is building, with the opposition Liberal Democratic Party considering a plan to reduce the bank's independence by changing the law that sets out its role.
Some ruling party members have expressed support for the plan, and lawmakers from both parties have called for the BOJ to do more to combat deflation and support the domestic economy.
"I feel a great sense of crisis" over efforts to alter the BOJ law, BNP Paribas chief economist Ryutaro Kono said at a forum in Tokyo on Wednesday.
Kono's nomination to the BOJ board was rejected last week by the opposition-controlled Upper House.
The nine-person Policy Board has two vacancies, leaving only four members — Ryuzo Miyao, Yoshihisa Morimoto, Sayuri Shirai, and Koji Ishida — once the governor and deputy governors are excluded. While the governor and one deputy have answered questions in the Diet this year, the other board members have not.