The government has asked former Toshiba Corp. Chairman Taizo Nishimuro to take over as president and CEO of Japan Post Holdings Co., which controls the giant government-owned Japan Post conglomerate, government officials said Friday.

The expected appointment of Nishimuro to replace Atsuo Saka, 66, a former senior Finance Ministry bureaucrat who only took the post in December, is seen as an attempt by the Liberal Democratic Party-led administration to regain its influence over the Japan Post group and bureaucrats.

Postal and internal affairs minister Yoshitaka Shindo said the administration has already asked Nishimuro, 77, to take the post.