Nobody's Home

Governor of the Bank of Japan Fukui Toshihiko's term ends tomorrow.

This is what Prime Minister Fukuda Yasuo said last night, on the subject of finding a replacement for the head of Japan's central bank during what marker cheerleader Alan Greenspan has called the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930's.

「与党だけ、政府だけで決められない。民主党がどう考えているか分からないこともある」

"The ruling coalition, the government cannot decide this unilaterally. There are things we don't know about what the Democratic Party of Japan is thinking."

Dear Prime Minister,

Stop delegating.

Stop hoping beyond hope that the deadbeats, lunatics, fanatics and sycophants about you are going to buckle down and do the jobs you have been asking them to do since September.

It will not happen.

Phone. Receiver. Call. Speak.

If no one answers, try another number.

Repeat until you have talked to Ozawa Ichirō, Kan Naoto and Hatoyama Yukio.

Find out, this morning, yourself, what the opposition is thinking.

You have a newspaper journalist as your finance minister. You have no central banker. The dollar is at 97 yen. The stock market is flopping about like a fugu on pavement.

Later - Nikkei Online is reporting that a new nomination bill will be presented to a joint meeting of the steering committees of the House of Representatives and the House of Councillors, with a finalization vote on the bill taking place tomorrow. No word on who is doing the presenting of this bill or who the new nominee might be. Heck, there is no indication that there even is a new nominee.

One would assume that the announcement has the DPJ's blessing...

Even later - And the winner is...Tanami Kōji (田波耕治) of the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC).

Thank you all for playing along.