The head of Bank of Japan, Masaaki Shirakawa, will be stepping down a few weeks early. From the NY Times Article (link here):
The governor of the Japanese central bank, Masaaki Shirakawa, said Tuesday he had offered to step down on March 19, three weeks before the end of his term, amid intense government pressure on the bank to take bolder steps to resuscitate the deflationary economy.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is expected to replace Mr. Shirakawa, who has long preached caution on monetary policy, with a successor who is more open to printing money, stoking inflation and bringing an end to the falling prices that have weighed on Japan.
It would be interesting to see how the government will “cooperate” with the Bank of Japan going forward. The Bank of Japan gain greater independence in 1997 after a revision to the Bank of Japan act (see Wikipedia link here).