Haruhiko Kuroda is a contender for a second term as Bank of Japan governor, according to a majority of economists replying to a survey ahead of a BOJ Policy Board meeting this week.
A third of analysts surveyed listed Kuroda as the only possible candidate to lead the bank after his current term ends in April 2018, the poll shows. He will be 73 years old then, and 78 if he stays through the end of a second term.
"The chances of Kuroda doing another term are more than 60 percent," said Yasunari Ueno, the chief market economist at Mizuho Securities Co. If Kuroda declines a second term, Columbia University professor Takatoshi Ito is the most likely person, according to Ueno.