POLITICS With Bank of Japan Gov. Toshihiko Fukui’s term expiring in 11 days, the government and ruling bloc on Friday finally nominated one of his deputies, Toshiro Muto, to replace him at the central bank. [THE JAPAN TIMES]

POLITICS Japan needs to establish its own sovereign wealth fund worth several to a dozen trillion yen, so as to effectively create wealth and sustain growth despite population declines, a lawmaker advocating the fund said. [KYODO]

POLLS Nearly 60 percent of voters want revenue from the higher gas tax rate used for general purposes, not just road construction as stipulated in the ruling coalition’s bill, an Asahi Shimbun survey showed. [ASAHI]

POLITICS The government on Monday decided to begin work on a full-scale reorganization of the Defense Ministry following a series of scandals and accidents, including the recent collision between the Maritime Self-Defense Force Aegis destroyer Atago and a fishing vessel. [YOMIURI]

POLITICS The Democratic Party of Japan will boycott House of Councilors deliberations on the fiscal 2008 budget and tax reform for at least one week and will refuse to accept any government nomination for the next Bank of Japan chief until Diet business returns to normal, DPJ executive members said Sunday. [THE JAPAN TIMES]

POLLS The disapproval rate on Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda’s Cabinet surpassed 50 percent for the first time in a poll conducted by the Mainichi Shimbun, it reported Monday.

POLITICS The central and the Tokyo metropolitan governments are at odds over whether to require office buildings and other corporate facilities to cut greenhouse gas emissions, with the central government recently scrapping its plan and the metropolitan government vowing to go ahead with its own measures. [YOMIURI]

POLITICS The fiscal 2008 budget and bills related to tax reform passed the House of Representatives plenary session Friday night with a majority vote by the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and New Komeito as three major opposition parties abstained from voting. [YOMIURI]

POLITICS South Korean President Lee Myung-bak agreed Monday to hold a summit with Japan on a regular basis and consider reviving talks to tear down trade barriers between the two countries, Lee’s spokesman said. [MAINICHI]

POLLS Two out of every three people distrust political parties and politicians and feel that their vote has no influence, a Yomiuri Shimbun survey has found. (1) [YOMIURI]

POLITICS The Japanese government plans to provide a total of 1.8 billion yen in grants to Madagascar and Senegal as the first batch of financial assistance in its “cool earth” partnership program aimed at helping developing economies work out measures against global warming, sources familiar with the plan said Sunday. [KYODO]

POLITICS The government plans to widen the extent to which consumer organizations can demand injunctions against business operators on behalf of individual consumers, according to sources Wednesday. [YOMIURI]

POLLS The approval rate of the Cabinet of Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda dipped to 38.7 percent in the latest opinion poll by The Yomiuri Shimbun, while the disapproval rate rose to 50.8 percent. [YOMIURI]

POLITICS The split in the Democratic Party of Japan over a planned bill to grant permanent foreign residents voting rights in local elections has further deepened, with groups of advocates and skeptics holding separate meetings on the issue. [YOMIURI]

POLITICS The Lower House on Wednesday overrode the Upper House’s rejection of a ¥1.78 trillion supplementary budget for fiscal 2007 and rammed it through the Diet, the first such move pertaining to an extra budget in 15 years. [THE JAPAN TIMES]

POLLS With the battle over the higher gasoline tax rate threatening to flare again, 55 percent of voters want the ruling and opposition camps to compromise and find common ground, an Asahi Shimbun survey showed. [ASAHI]

POLITICS Four people filed their candidacies Sunday in the Kyoto mayoral election set for Feb. 17. The poll will choose a successor to Yorikane Masumoto, who announced his resignation after serving three terms for a total 12 years in office. [YOMIURI]

POLITICS The ruling bloc withdrew its contentious stopgap bill to briefly extend the extra rates on gasoline and other auto-related taxes after agreeing Wednesday with the opposition to “reach a conclusion” on the fiscal 2008 budget and related bills by the end of March. [THE JAPAN TIMES]

POLITICS The Liberal Democratic Party and New Komeito on Tuesday night submitted to the House of Representatives a lawmaker-sponsored stopgap bill to extend by two months the provisional gasoline tax rate and other road-related tax rates beyond their end of March expiration date. [YOMIURI]

POLITICS Kazuo Kitagawa, secretary-general of ruling coalition partner Komeito, has voiced support for opposition Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) leader Ichiro Ozawa’s suggestion of considering submitting a bill to give foreigners with permanent residence status the right to vote in local elections. (1) [MAINICHI]