By Leika Kihara
(Reuters) -&nbsp;Japan's&nbsp;government&nbsp;is&nbsp;likely&nbsp;to&nbsp;present&nbsp;its&nbsp;nominees&nbsp;for the&nbsp;next&nbsp;Bank&nbsp;of&nbsp;Japan&nbsp;(BOJ)&nbsp;governor&nbsp;and&nbsp;two&nbsp;deputy&nbsp;governors on&nbsp;Feb.&nbsp;10,&nbsp;sources&nbsp;have&nbsp;told&nbsp;Reuters, a&nbsp;choice&nbsp;that will&nbsp;affect&nbsp;how&nbsp;soon&nbsp;the&nbsp;central&nbsp;bank&nbsp;could&nbsp;dial&nbsp;back&nbsp;its&nbsp;massive&nbsp;stimulus.
The&nbsp;nominees, if approved by both houses of parliament, will succeed&nbsp;BOJ&nbsp;Governor&nbsp;Haruhiko Kuroda&nbsp;and&nbsp;his&nbsp;two&nbsp;deputies, Masayoshi Amamiya&nbsp;and&nbsp;Masazumi Wakatabe.
Kuroda's term ends on April 8, while those of Amamiya&nbsp;and&nbsp;Wakatabe expire on March 19.
Below are possible candidates for the posts:
MASAYOSHI AMAMIYA - VERY STRONG CONTENDER FOR&nbsp;GOVERNOR
Currently&nbsp;deputy&nbsp;governor, Amamiya has spent most of his career at the&nbsp;central&nbsp;bank&nbsp;drafting monetary policy ideas&nbsp;and&nbsp;is nick-named "Mr.&nbsp;BOJ" for masterminding many of the&nbsp;bank's unconventional monetary easing ideas.
He played a key role in drafting Kuroda's huge asset-buying programme in 2013&nbsp;and&nbsp;consistently called for keeping ultra-low interest rates. But he also said in July the&nbsp;BOJ&nbsp;must "always" think about the means of exiting ultra-loose monetary policy.
An avid fan of classical music, Amamiya is known for his deep contacts with lawmakers&nbsp;and&nbsp;bureaucrats that help him read which way the political wind is blowing in steering policy.
HIROSHI NAKASO - VERY STRONG CONTENDER FOR&nbsp;GOVERNOR
A career&nbsp;central&nbsp;banker who served as&nbsp;deputy&nbsp;governor&nbsp;until 2018, Nakaso played a key role in navigating an exit from the&nbsp;BOJ's first spell of quantitative easing in 2006.
With long experience overseeing the&nbsp;BOJ's market operations&nbsp;and&nbsp;international affairs, Nakaso has repeatedly warned of the drawbacks of prolonged monetary easing such as the distortion&nbsp;its&nbsp;huge presence&nbsp;could&nbsp;create in bond&nbsp;and&nbsp;money markets.
Nakaso laid out his idea of an exit from ultra-easy policy in a book published in May. Under that plan, the&nbsp;BOJ&nbsp;would first ditch&nbsp;its&nbsp;10-year bond yield target, then raise short-term interest rates&nbsp;and&nbsp;finally move to reduce&nbsp;its&nbsp;balance sheet.
HIROHIDE YAMAGUCHI - POSSIBLE CONTENDER FOR&nbsp;GOVERNOR
A career&nbsp;central&nbsp;banker, Yamaguchi served as one of the&nbsp;two&nbsp;deputies of former&nbsp;BOJ&nbsp;Governor&nbsp;Masaaki Shirakawa&nbsp;and&nbsp;played a key role in crafting an asset-buying scheme under which the&nbsp;bank&nbsp;first began purchasing exchange-traded funds (ETF) in 2010.
Since retiring from the&nbsp;BOJ&nbsp;in 2013, he has criticised Kuroda's&nbsp;stimulus&nbsp;as relying too much on the view&nbsp;central&nbsp;banks can influence public perceptions with monetary policy.
Warning of the rising cost of prolonged easing, Yamaguchi has also called for ending the&nbsp;BOJ's huge asset purchases&nbsp;and&nbsp;abandoning an yield cap he describes as unsustainable.
MASATSUGU ASAKAWA - POSSIBLE CONTENDER FOR&nbsp;GOVERNOR
Like Kuroda, Asakawa formerly had the role of&nbsp;Japan's top financial diplomat, a job he took in 2015&nbsp;and&nbsp;kept for four years. During that time, he battled a strong yen&nbsp;and&nbsp;engaged in tough negotiations with then U.S. President Donald Trump's administration on currency policy.
After retiring from the finance ministry, he became president of the Asian Development&nbsp;Bank&nbsp;in 2020 - a job Kuroda also took before becoming&nbsp;BOJ&nbsp;governor.
In his book, Asakawa praised Kuroda's&nbsp;stimulus&nbsp;programme as a right move to beat deflation. He also said yen declines would be harder to stop than yen rises via currency intervention, because the amount of foreign currencies&nbsp;Japan&nbsp;can sell to prop up the yen would be limited to the size of&nbsp;its&nbsp;foreign reserves.
DARK HORSE CANDIDATES
Traditionally, the&nbsp;BOJ&nbsp;and&nbsp;the finance ministry take turns filling the&nbsp;central&nbsp;bank&nbsp;governor&nbsp;post, holding the post for only a single five-year term. That broke when Kuroda was appointed in 2018 to serve a second five-year term.
If history is any guide, the&nbsp;next&nbsp;BOJ&nbsp;governor&nbsp;would be chosen from the&nbsp;central&nbsp;bank's ranks. But there is a chance Prime Minister Fumio Kishida opts for a dark horse candidate.
Among names floated by analysts are Columbia University professor Takatoshi Ito, who is close to Kuroda,&nbsp;and&nbsp;former top currency diplomat Takehiko Nakao.
Given Kishida's close ties with the finance ministry, he may hand-pick a former top bureaucrat from the institution, though there is no consensus on who&nbsp;could&nbsp;be among strong candidates.
SHINICHI UCHIDA - POSSIBLE&nbsp;DEPUTY&nbsp;GOVERNOR
A career&nbsp;central&nbsp;banker who spent most of his career at the elite monetary affairs department, Uchida landed a rare reappointment for a second, four-year term as the&nbsp;BOJ's executive director overseeing monetary policy. Many analysts see the reappointment as a sign he&nbsp;could&nbsp;fill one of the&nbsp;two&nbsp;deputy&nbsp;governor&nbsp;posts.
Together with Amamiya, Uchida played a key role in drafting many of Kuroda's policies including the introduction of negative interest rates&nbsp;and&nbsp;yield curve control in 2016.
People who know him say Uchida firmly believes that the&nbsp;BOJ&nbsp;must maintain ultra-loose policy to reflate growth&nbsp;and&nbsp;tighten the job market enough so that wages rise more.
TAKEO HOSHI - POSSIBLE&nbsp;DEPUTY&nbsp;GOVERNOR
An economics professor at the University of Tokyo, Hoshi is well-versed in&nbsp;Japanese monetary policy&nbsp;and&nbsp;is a regular member of&nbsp;government&nbsp;panels&nbsp;and&nbsp;the&nbsp;BOJ's academic workshops.
At one of the&nbsp;BOJ&nbsp;workshops held in November, Hoshi explained&nbsp;how&nbsp;structural changes in&nbsp;Japan's labour market&nbsp;could&nbsp;push up average wages more than in the past.
"The&nbsp;BOJ&nbsp;must start worrying about the possibility of inflation accelerating more than expected," he&nbsp;told&nbsp;Reuters, adding the&nbsp;BOJ&nbsp;may abandon&nbsp;its&nbsp;yield cap as early as this year.
FEMALE&nbsp;DEPUTY&nbsp;GOVERNOR&nbsp;CANDIDATES
No female has yet served as&nbsp;BOJ&nbsp;deputy&nbsp;governor&nbsp;or&nbsp;governor, a tradition Kishida may seek to change to enhance diversity.
One possible candidate is Tokiko Shimizu, who rose up the ranks in the male-dominated institution&nbsp;and&nbsp;now serves as executive director overseeing international affairs. People close to her describe Shimizu as dovish on monetary policy.
Other candidates include think tank head Yuri Okina, who calls for phasing out the&nbsp;BOJ's yield cap,&nbsp;and&nbsp;former&nbsp;BOJ&nbsp;board member Sayuri Shirai, who proposes a review of the current&nbsp;stimulus&nbsp;so the&nbsp;bank&nbsp;can adjust interest rates more flexibly.
FINANCIAL BUREAUCRAT&nbsp;DEPUTY&nbsp;GOVERNOR&nbsp;CANDIDATES
If a former&nbsp;BOJ&nbsp;executive becomes&nbsp;governor, there is a strong chance one of the&nbsp;deputy&nbsp;governor&nbsp;posts will be filled by top finance ministry bureaucrats such as Shigeaki Okamoto&nbsp;and&nbsp;Yasushi Kinoshita.
Kinoshita&nbsp;told&nbsp;Reuters&nbsp;the&nbsp;BOJ&nbsp;should eventually head for an exit from ultra-loose policy,&nbsp;and&nbsp;in doing so must move "cautiously&nbsp;and&nbsp;steadily" to avoid causing huge market turbulence.
Ryozo Himino, a former head of&nbsp;Japan's financial watchdog, is also considered a dark horse candidate. People close to him describe Himino as critical of the&nbsp;BOJ's negative rates policy for the damage it is inflicting on commercial&nbsp;banks' profits.
&nbsp;
(Reporting by Leika Kihara; Editing by Sam Holmes)

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Factbox-Who are candidates to become next BOJ governor?