Diet members should have the opportunity to interview Bank of Japan board nominees before approving them, a ruling party legislator and a former central bank official said recently.

"The current process is insufficient to evaluate a candidate's thoughts and career," Kouhei Otsuka, a leader of the Democratic Party of Japan's official policy group on countering deflation and the strong yen, said this week in Tokyo.

The strengthening yen and the likelihood that the nation will not achieve the bank's 1 percent inflation target in 2013 may compel politicians to call for more stimulus even after the central bank increased its asset-purchase fund twice this year. Lawmakers rejected the government's nomination of BNP Paribas economist Ryutaro Kono to the BOJ Policy Board last month, arguing the analyst had shown reluctance to undertake monetary easing.

"There are increasing calls among legislators" to hold such hearings, Otsuka said.

In 2008, nominees for the central bank's governor and deputy governors were summoned by lawmakers for questioning before the vote, while in 2003 they were called to the Diet after they were approved. Recent nominees for the other seats on the Policy Board were only questioned in the Diet after their nominations were approved.

To improve the approval process, lawmakers could either meet candidates before they are officially nominated or have an opportunity to question them on their views on the economy and monetary policy in the Diet once their names have been put forward, Otsuka said, adding that no specific plans to alter the process have been made.

"Without a process in place, we would have to choose people for extremely important posts without sufficiently reviewing them," said Otsuka, 52, who worked at the central bank for more than a decade and has also served as deputy minister at the Cabinet Office.