Japan lawmakers seek breakthrough on BoJ head

---

TOKYO, Mar 13 (Reuters): Senior lawmakers from Japan's ruling and opposition parties called for a breakthrough by Monday in the stalemate over a new Bank of Japan (BoJ) governor, in an effort to avoid a policy vacuum during the global credit market crisis.
"We have agreed that it is desirable to avoid a policy vacuum, even just for one day," Kenji Yamaoka, parliamentary affairs chief for the main opposition Democratic Party, told reporters after meeting his counterpart from the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, Tadamori Oshima.
BoJ Governor Toshihiko Fukui steps down next Wednesday. The standoff over who will replace him and his two deputies comes as global market turmoil sent the dollar tumbling below 100 yen for the first time in 12-years and as Japanese share prices dropped more than 3 per cent to a two-year closing low.
The government Thursday won a parliamentary vote in the lower house on its nominee to head the central bank, Toshiro Muto, and its two candidates for deputy BoJ governors.
But that did nothing to clarify who will lead the central bank as Muto had already been vetoed by parliament's upper house, which is controlled by the opposition.
Only one nominee-former BoJ official Masaaki Shirakawa-has won approval from both houses to be a deputy governor. The upper house had also rejected one other nominee for deputy governor.
Shirakawa could find himself occupying Fukui's seat as acting governor if the row is not resolved.
Yamaoka said he had agreed with Oshima to request a new candidate for BoJ governor.
But Oshima and government spokesman Nobutaka Machimura did not say whether they were thinking of putting forward a different name.