Japan's Parliament Approves Haruhiko Kuroda as BoJ Governor

The Japanese parliament has approved the nomination of former Asian Development Bank president Haruhiko Kuroda as the next Bank of Japan governor, setting stage for bold stimulus steps from the Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

The lower house had approved the nomination of Kuroda and the two deputies Kikuo Iwata and Hiroshi Nakaso earlier this week. The trio has now received the green signal from the opposition dominated upper house.

Kuroda and his deputies will take office after the outgoing governor Masaaki Shirakawa steps down on 19 March.

Abe, who came to power in December with aggressive monetary easing promises, was expected to be looking for a central bank chief who would support his moves. Shirakawa was seen largely opposed to Abe's aggressive moves, suggesting that they may not help the economy.

Kuroda was widely seen to replace Shirakawa considering his pro-stimulus stand and his strong international networks.

"We want the BOJ to press ahead with policy steps to achieve its 2 percent inflation target as early as possible," said Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, suggesting that the government is looking to work closely with the lender.

Though the next policy meet is scheduled to take place in early April, Kuroda's earlier comments had given rise to speculations that he may even call an emergency meet sooner.

Officials were preparing for such an eventuality, considering the newly appointed BoJ chief's willingness to do the needful to meet the inflation levels, according to Reuters.

Japanese economy is expected to be on the path to recovery, after going through a rough patch as the global economic downturn hurt external demand. The yen, the strength of which had remained a major cause of concern for Japanese exporters, has weakened over 20 percent against the US dollar in the recent months. Equity markets have also gained, with the benchmark Nikkei index rising about 27 percent.