(Adds details, background)
* Wakatabe seen as advocate of bolder easing
* Veteran central banker Amamiya gets other deputy post - Nikkei
* BOJ Kuroda likely to be reappointed, easy policy seen intact
* Govt to submit nominees to parliament on Friday
By Leika Kihara
TOKYO, Feb 16 (Reuters) - The Japanese government is considering nominating economist Masazumi Wakatabe, an advocate of bolder monetary easing, as one of the two deputy governors at the central bank, the Nikkei reported on Thursday.
The choice would underscore dominant market views that the Bank of Japan will be in no rush to follow in the footsteps of other major central banks in dialing back its massive stimulus programme.
The selection of the new BOJ leadership is crucial to global markets, which have recently been volatile on expectations major central banks will whittle down their crisis-mode stimulus.
The other deputy governor post will likely go to BOJ Executive Director Masayoshi Amamiya, a veteran central banker known for masterminding various monetary policy steps, the Nikkei said without citing sources.
The government will submit to parliament nominees for the BOJ governor and deputy governors on Friday. A source has told Reuters the government will reappoint BOJ Governor Haruhiko Kuroda for another five-year term when the current one expires in April.
While Kuroda has pledged to maintain the BOJ's ultra-easy policy, he has ruled out the need to expand stimulus and has signalled the chance of raising interest rates if inflation prospects brighten.
Analysts say Amamiya, who has worked closely with Kuroda as an expert of monetary policy, is unlikely to rock the boat.
The choice of Wakatabe, a professor at Waseda University, could complicate Kuroda's task of engineering a slow but steady exit from the BOJ's radical monetary stimulus. In an interview with the Nikkei last November, Wakatabe said the BOJ needs stronger steps to beat deflation and should accelerate its asset purchases.
That would require reversing a decision made in 2016 to abandon a target for asset purchases and contradict the mainstream approach of many BOJ officials, who see the bank's next move to be a withdrawal, not an expansion, of stimulus.
Under Kuroda's helm, the BOJ deployed in 2013 a radical asset-buying programme to reflate the economy out of deflation and achieve its 2 percent inflation target.
Subdued inflation forced the BOJ to revamp its policy framework in 2016 to one better suited for a long-term battle against deflation, which targets interest rates from the pace of money printing.
With years of ultra-low interest rates hurting bank profits, many analysts see the new BOJ leadership's biggest task as seeking a slow but orderly exit from its massive stimulus.
Wakatabe and Amamiya will replace incumbent deputy governors Kikuo Iwata, an academic, and Hiroshi Nakaso, a career central banker, when their terms end in March.
(Reporting by Leika Kihara; Editing by Susan Thomas)
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