JAPAN’S PRIME minister, Yukio Hatoyama, has moved swiftly to contain the damage caused by Hirohisa Fujii’s decision to step down as finance minister, naming Naoto Kan, deputy prime minister, as his replacement.
Mr Fujii (77), who was admitted to hospital late last month suffering from high blood pressure and exhaustion, resigned for health reasons. He presented Mr Hatoyama with a medical verdict on his health and a resignation letter yesterday. “Health problems cannot be helped so I decided to accept his resignation,” Mr Hatoyama said.
The appointment of Mr Kan, formerly state minister for national strategy and a close ally of Mr Hatoyama, comes just a day after Mr Fujii said he wanted to quit. “I will do my best to serve as finance minister,” Mr Kan said.
The change of guard at the finance ministry comes at a difficult time for the prime minister and his ruling Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), which has been in power for less than four months.
The government faces a challenging task in passing the record 92,300 billion yen budget for 2010 during the Diet session, which reconvenes later this month. Mr Hatoyama has made the passing of the 2010 budget and the Y7,200 billion supplementary budget for 2009 a top priority.
The finance minister will play a key role in getting the budgets passed in the Diet, which reconvenes on January 18th.
“I appointed the person who watched [the budget process] most closely in order to keep the damage to a minimum,” said Mr Hatoyama. “I believe Mr Kan will manage the job sufficiently well, so I am not worried.”
Mr Kan is, along with Mr Hatoyama, a founding member of the DPJ and rose to prominence in 1996 during his stint as health minister when he exposed the ministry’s role in the spread of Aids by tainted blood products. Known for his conviction that policy should be made by politicians rather than bureaucrats, Mr Kan is also an advocate of government action to stimulate the economy.
“He is basically a Keynesian. It may be possible that Kan will take a more progressive, expansionary approach,” said Jiro Yamaguchi, professor of politics at Hokkaido University. – Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2010
