Japan govt wins vote on BOJ but stalemate remains

(For more on the BOJ succession, click [ID:nT55777]) TOKYO, March 13 (Reuters) - Japan's government won a parliamentary vote on its nominee for governor of the Bank of Japan on Thursday but the result did nothing to clarify who will head the central bank, as its candidate has already been vetoed.

Parliament's lower house, controlled by the ruling coalition, approved the government's choice of Toshiro Muto, now a deputy governor, for the top job, with academic Takatoshi Ito and retired central bank official Masaaki Shirakawa as deputies.

But coming after Muto's rejection by the upper house on Wednesday, the vote simply confirmed a political stalemate over the central bank's leadership.

The government must now either convince opposition parties that control the upper house to change their minds, or put up a compromise candidate.

Alone among the trio, Shirakawa was approved by the upper house on Wednesday, making it likely he will become acting governor if the row is not resolved by the time current governor Toshihiko Fukui retires next week.

That would ensure there was someone in place to make decisions if a need arose to coordinate global moves to combat the crisis in global credit markets.

But analysts say a stopgap governor might be unwilling to take critical, long-term decisions and the issue should be resolved quickly.

Ruling coalition lawmakers are expected to seek talks with the opposition to break the impasse, but it is unclear if the opposition parties would even agree to such a meeting.

Opposition lawmakers have consistently opposed Muto mainly because of his close ties to government as a former top bureaucrat in the Ministry of Finance -- a relationship they say would hurt the independence of the central bank.

Ito also fell foul of the opposition because he is a member of the government's top economic advisory panel and for being in favour of inflation targeting. (Reporting by Yoko Nishikawa; Editing by Rodney Joyce)