Japan lawmakers leave central bank leaderless

---

TOKYO, Mar 19 (Reuters): The Japanese central bank will be run by a temporary leader in the midst of a credit crisis, after parliament rejected Wednesday the government's latest nominee to replace the current governor when he retires in a few hours.
Opposition parties in control of parliament's upper house vetoed a second former top finance ministry bureaucrat put forward for the job, leaving Governor Toshihiko Fukui with a final task of appointing a temporary governor before he leaves the job at midnight (1500 GMT).
The vacancy -- the first at the Bank of Japan (BoJ) since 1923 -- leaves the world's No 2 economy without a permanent central bank head amid global market turmoil and as major central banks take coordinated action to curb the credit crisis.
While politicians from the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and the opposition Democrats have repeatedly blamed each other for the stalemate, one analyst questioned the future of Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda.