Japan PM Eyes Yosano As Finance Min-Media

The current finance minister, Shoichi Nakagawa, said he would step down after being forced to deny he was drunk at a G7 news conference.

Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso is leaning towards appointing Economics Minister Kaoru Yosano, a fiscal conservative, to replace the finance minister, who said on Tuesday that he would resign, Japanese media reported.

The current finance minister, Shoichi Nakagawa, said he would step down after being forced to deny he was drunk at a G7 news conference.

A tax expert, 70-year-old Yosano has placed a priority on fixing battered public finances and was a strong advocate for a balanced budget by 2012, at least until the global credit crisis sent Japan into a deep recession.

"The one good thing about Yosano is that he actually wants the job. He wants to be a policy maker," said Jesper Koll, the CEO of Tantallon Research Japan, but he was disappointed that the prime minister had no one else to turn to.

"There is no Young Turk, no middle-aged guy who is ready to step up. It means a shortage of guts, a shortage of ambition and a shortage of leadership."

Yosano has in the past called for a higher consumption tax to help fund bulging social security costs for Japan's rapidly ageing society.

He came in second after Aso in the race to become prime minister last September and has since been a linchpin of the Aso administration.

But Yosano's name has also been floated as a potential replacement if Aso's deeply unpopular administration falls.

Kyodo said Yosano would retain his current post and also take over Nakagawa's other portfolio in charge of banking supervision.