There is a logical corollary to the UK government’s bold decision to appoint Mark Carney, a Canadian, as governor of the Bank of England. That is to make Paul Tucker, the UK central bank’s deputy governor and an unsuccessful candidate for the top job, the next governor of the Bank of Japan.

This modest proposal is made mostly in jest. But after 15 years in which the BoJ has failed to defeat deflation, the institution could do with some fresh thinking. Sadly, it is inconceivable that Japan would appoint a foreigner to lead one of its most important institutions. Even in Tokyo, however, it is not entirely unrealistic to imagine an “outsider” – someone not steeped in BoJ orthodoxy – being drafted in.

That, in effect, is what the man most likely to become Japan’s next leader is proposing. Shinzo Abe, a former prime minister, is poised to return to the job to the job if his party wins next month’s election. Mr Abe has set the cat among the pigeons – or, in monetary policy terms, the doves among the hawks – by proposing some radically new thinking.