TOKYO, Feb. 14 (Xinhua) -- The Japanese government on Tuesday officially nominated Kazuo Ueda to parliament as its pick to become the next Bank of Japan (BOJ) chief, replacing incumbent Haruhiko Kuroda whose term ends in April.
Ueda, an academic and former member of the central bank's decision-making body, was presented by the government as its nomination for the bank's top post to executive members of the Steering Committees of both houses of Japan's bicameral parliament.
Ueda, 71, previously served as a member on the BOJ Policy Board for seven years and is known to be a specialist in finance and macroeconomics.
He was instrumental in introducing the BOJ's zero interest rate policy and quantitative easing measures, although having spent the majority of his life in academia.
If approved by parliament for the post, he will become the first BOJ governor since postwar times to have been an academic for the majority of his life.
The Shizuoka Prefecture-born academic earned his doctorate from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the United States. He was also an economics professor at the University of Tokyo.
Since 2017, Ueda has been a professor at Kyoritsu Women's University in Tokyo and since 2008 has been a special adviser to the BOJ's Institute for Monetary and Economic Studies.
On Tuesday, the government also presented its picks for BOJ deputy governors to parliament, with Ryozo Himino, a former commissioner of the Financial Services Agency, and Shinichi Uchida, an executive director at the central bank.
Providing the nominees are approved by both houses of parliament, controlled by the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), they will be appointed with five-year terms by Japanese Prime Minister and LDP leader Fumio Kishida.
The nominees will speak in front of the Steering Committees in the weeks ahead and face questions from lawmakers. ■
