http://news.smh.com.au/japan-charts-a-course-without-a-central-banker/20080320-20pm.html

Japan woke up Thursday without a central banker for the first time in more than eight decades, amid domestic political bickering and at a time of global financial turmoil.

Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda lamented the situation in a weekly emailed column, criticizing the opposition for repeated rejections of two candidates, both of whom were former top finance ministry bureaucrats.

"For the first time in our post-war history, today became the day when we do not have a governor for the Bank of Japan (BoJ)," Fukuda said in the Japanese edition of his column.

"This incident has shown the rest of the world that Japan cannot make significant decisions through political processes," he said.

Japanese lawmakers failed to appoint a successor to Toshihiko Fukui, whose five-year tenure expired Wednesday.