PENPIX-Possible Democratic Party of Japan finance ministers

(For more on Japan's election click [ID:nPOLJP])

Aug 31 (Reuters) - The opposition Democratic Party was handed a historic victory in an election on Sunday, ousting Prime Minister Taro Aso's Liberal Democratic Party and ending a half-century of nearly unbroken rule by the conservative pro-business party.

It is unclear who the Democrats might appoint as finance minister as the country emerges from its worst postwar recession.

Party leader Yukio Hatoyama has said the post will go to a lawmaker, effectively ruling out private-sector candidates floated by analysts such as Eisuke Sakakibara, known as "Mr. Yen" for spearheading currency market intervention in the 1990s. [ID:nT277099]

Following are some Democratic Party names seen by political analysts as possible candidates for finance minister and other leading minds behind its economic policy:

HIROHISA FUJII, 77:

Fujii, a former finance ministry official, served as finance minister in an anti-LDP coalition from 1993 to 1994. Now the head of the Democratic Party's tax panel, Fujii has called for funding Japan's social welfare costs with consumption tax revenue and discussing over the next four years the issue of raising the sales tax.

He said Tokyo should not intervene in the foreign exchange markets unless currency rates swing abnormally and that he saw no need to alter Japan's dollar holdings in its $1 trillion foreign exchange reserves, the world's second biggest after China. [ID:nT235696]

Fujii also said the Democrats would cut what they consider wasteful spending in Tokyo's $160 billion stimulus measures, which he said includes such spending as on construction projects, to reduce new bond issuance totalling a record 44.1 trillion yen (FX) in the fiscal year that started on April 1.

KATSUYA OKADA, 56:

Some party officials say the post of finance minister may go to veteran lawmaker Katsuya Okada, a policy expert with a "Mr Clean" image and the party's No. 2 executive. [ID:nT101762]

Okada, a former trade ministry official, said this month Tokyo should not intervene in markets to weaken the yen as long as currency moves match fundamentals. He also said Japan's policy of export-led growth was reaching its limits. [ID:nT4896]

He also said the party wanted to set a target for fixing Japan's tattered finances when it compiles the budget for the fiscal year from April 2010, if the economy stabilises by then.

NAOTO KAN, 62:

Naoto Kan is another party veteran who, together with party leader Yukio Hatoyama, founded the party a decade ago.

Kan has said the Democrats would aim not only to strengthen the social safety net for those out of work but create jobs in sectors such as agriculture and 'green' technology as part of an "Environmental New Deal".

MASAHARU NAKAGAWA, 59:

Nakagawa is the party's current finance spokesman but sources at the party say the current British-style "shadow cabinet" is largely symbolic and title holders, including Nakagawa, may not be in the cabinet in a Democrat-led government.

Nakagawa has said Japan should avoid buying U.S. government bonds denominated in dollars because of currency risk, and a Democratic Party government would continue to buy U.S. government bonds only if they were denominated in yen. [ID:nT239417]

On currency rates, he said they should be left for markets to decide, but added that he agreed with the current government's stance of intervening when they fluctuate rapidly and out of line with economic fundamentals. [ID:nT187561]

NAOKI MINEZAKI, 64:

The finance minister is normally chosen from parliament's more powerful lower house, but some upper house lawmakers have been leading policy discussions within the party, such as Naoki Minezaki, a member of the upper house financial committee.

The former shadow finance minister said in June that Japan should seek an industrial structure in which firms try to strengthen their business to cope with a strong yen, rather than rely on a weak currency to boost experts.

He also said the Bank of Japan should raise interest rates, now set near zero, once financial conditions normalise as very low rates have let "zombie" firms survive. [ID:nT122951]

MASAYUKI NAOSHIMA, 63:

Another possibility from the upper house is policy chief Masayuki Naoshima, a former motor industry union official. He has said child allowances and removal of highway tolls could be funded by tapping government reserves and cutting waste, an idea dismissed by critics who say reserves would quickly dry up.

But Naoshima said the reserves would be a stop-gap providing time for an overhaul of the budget to strip out redundant layers of bureaucracy and perks for former officials.

He said last month the party's policies, such as child care allowances and removal of highway tolls, will raise economic growth by two percentage points in the fiscal year from April 2012. [ID:nT320130] (Reporting by Hideyuki Sano and Tetsushi Kajimoto)