Japan parliament approves Shirakawa to head BOJ

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TOKYO, April 9 (Reuters) - Japan's lower house of parliament approved government nominee Masaaki Shirakawa as governor of the Bank of Japan on Wednesday, in time for him to attend a meeting of G7 finance leaders in Washington this week.

Shirakawa, who had been serving as acting governor of the central bank, earlier won the backing of parliament's upper house.

Rejection by the opposition-controlled upper house of the government's two earlier nominees for the job had left the central bank without a permanent head for the first time in 80 years, following Toshihiko Fukui's retirement last month.

The lower house also approved government nominee Hiroshi Watanabe, a former senior finance ministry official, as deputy governor but his candidacy failed as it was earlier rejected by the upper house.

Watanabe is the third former finance ministry bureaucrat to be voted down by the upper house, controlled by a bloc led by the main opposition Democratic Party, which opposes allowing retired bureaucrats to take jobs at the cental bank, saying such appointments threaten its independence. (Reporting by Tokyo Economic Policy Desk)