Masaru Hayami, former head of the Japan Association of Corporate Executives (Keizai Doyukai), will assume the post of governor of the Bank of Japan, replacing Yasuo Matsushita, Chief Cabinet Kanezo Muraoka said March 16 evening.
Muraoka also said Sakuya Fujiwara, a former reporter for Jiji Press, will become vice governor of the central bank.
Hayami, who also served on the BOJ board of directors before becoming president of Nissho Iwai Corp., is expected to become the new BOJ governor in April, when the central bank makes a fresh start under the revised Bank of Japan Law, which gives it increased independence from the Finance Ministry. Matsushita last week offered to step down to take responsibility for a bribery scandal involving an official of the central bank.
Yasuyuki Yoshizawa, 42, head of the Capital Markets Division of the BOJ's Credit and Market Management Department, was arrested last March 11 on suspicion of taking bribes in the form of excessive wining and dining in exchange for providing information relating to the central bank's money market operations and lending policy.