(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-04-09 09:53

TOKYO - Japan's upper house of parliament approved acting Bank of Japan Governor Masaaki Shirakawa as the central bank's permanent head on Wednesday, bringing to a close a political impasse that had left the post vacant since last month.

The upper house, controlled by opposition parties, gave a nod to Shirakawa just in time for him to fly to a G7 finance leaders meeting on Friday in Washington.

Shirakawa, the government's third candidate for the job following rejection of its two previous nominees by the upper house, will be voted on by parliament's lower house at 12:30 p.m. (0330 GMT) but that vote is a formality, given the government's overwhelming majority there.

But the house vetoed the government's candidate for deputy governor, Hiroshi Watanabe, a former vice finance minister for international affairs, leaving the bank's policy board with two vacancies - and the potential for further wrangling over who should fill those posts.

The main opposition Democratic Party, which with its smaller allies control the upper house, rejected Watanabe saying BOJ posts should not go to former finance ministry bureaucrats.

Rejection by opposition-controled upper house of the government's two earlier nominees for the job has left the central bank without a permanent head for the first time in more than 80 years since Toshihiko Fukui's retirement last month.