The Democratic Party of Japan government led by Yukio Hatoyama took office on September 16. The finance minister is Hirohisa Fujii, 77, briefly finance minister in the anti-Liberal Democratic Party government of 1993-94 and before that an LDP member.

Fujii has said there would be “substantial cuts” to the previous government’s Y15 trillion ($170bn) stimulus package now going into effect. He also told Reuters he is opposed to currency intervention “as long as market moves are moderate,” that one country cannot affect currency markets much because of their size, and that he believes a strong yen has benefits for Japan’s economy.

Shizuka Kamei, head of the small People’s New Party, is the new minister of posts and financial services. He opposes “market fundamentalism”. On September 16 he called for a three-year moratorium on repayment of some small and medium sized businesses’ debts to avoid further bankruptcies.

31 Aug 2009 -

Try something new