TOKYO, Feb 5: Bank of Japan chief Masaaki Shirakawa said on Tuesday he would step down about three weeks before his term ends, after the central bank and Japan's new government butted heads on policy matters.

Shirakawa had been expected to leave when his five-year term expires on April 8, after new Prime Minister Shinzo Abe openly said he wanted a more like-minded candidate.

But he said he had told the prime minister he will resign on March 19, when the terms for two deputy governors expire, so that his successor and the rest of the bank's new leadership could be sworn in at the same time.

“There was no government pressure at all. It was my decision,” Shirakawa was quoted as saying by the Kyodo news agency after informing Abe of his plans earlier in the day.

“I have judged it would be very beneficial to launch the new leadership together from the perspective of the central bank doing its job to contribute to the Japanese economy in the current situation,” he told reporters at the BoJ's headquarters in Tokyo.

Abe, 58, had threatened to change a law mandating the bank's independence unless it fell into line with his government's demands for aggressive monetary easing measures.

Among the candidates seen as possible successors to Shirakawa are Haruhiko Kuroda, president of the Asian Development Bank, and Toshiro Muto, a former deputy governor at the BoJ.

Last month the bank said it would adopt a two per cent inflation goal demanded by the new government in a bid to beat the deflation that has haunted the world's third-largest economy for years.—AFP