FACTBOX-Possible successors to Japan Finance Minister Fujii

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TOKYO Jan 5 (Reuters) - Japanese Finance Minister Hirohisa Fujii, 77, left financial markets guessing on whether he will remain in the post, saying he was waiting for test results on his health. [ID:nT360423]

Picking a successor for Fujii, one of the few experienced members of the novice Democratic Party-led government, will be difficult given the need for a veteran politician to balance the conflicting task of reining in Japan's huge public debt and supporting a fragile economy.

Before taking power in September last year, Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama said key cabinet posts should be filled by lawmakers, effectively ruling out private-sector candidates such as Eisuke Sakakibara, a former bureaucrat known as "Mr Yen" for spearheading currency market intervention in the 1990s.

Following are potential candidates to succeed Fujii:

YOSHIHIKO NODA, DEPUTY FINANCE MINISTER:

As one of Fujii's two deputies, Noda, 52, has been mostly in charge of international finance and has occasionally attended overseas meetings on behalf of the finance minister.

He brushed off speculation of currency intervention when the yen jumped to a 14-year high against the dollar in November, saying Tokyo had no such plans as currency moves were led by dollar weakness. [ID:nT371315]

He is regarded as a relative fiscal hawk who worries about Japan's big debt. Noda stood solidly behind Fujii in December in calling on the government to keep its new bond issuance in 2010/11 capped at 44 trillion yen. [ID:nTKX006588]

NAOKI MINEZAKI, DEPUTY FINANCE MINISTER:

An ex-union official and upper house lawmaker, Minezaki, 65, is Fujii's other deputy and well versed in tax, financial and monetary policies.

He was mainly in charge of compiling the government's tax guidelines for next fiscal year, which included raising the tobacco tax and replacing a surcharge on gasoline with a new tax to cover tax revenue shortfalls. [ID:nTOE5BL09D]

Minezaki has mostly toed the finance ministry's official line on currencies. He told Reuters last October that Japan should not step into the foreign exchange market just because the yen rises. [ID:nT362093]

CANDIDATES FROM THE CABINET

Following are cabinet members who were mentioned as candidates for finance minister before Hatoyama formed his cabinet in September. One of them could assume the finance portfolio in addition to their current post or through a cabinet reshuffle, although Hatoyama said on Monday he was not considering a cabinet shakeup now.

NAOTO KAN, NATIONAL STRATEGY MINISTER:

A veteran lawmaker who together with Hatoyama founded the Democratic Party a decade ago, Kan, 63, now heads the newly created National Strategy Bureau, which oversees the budget process and sets priorities for fiscal policy. He is also in charge of economic analysis at the Cabinet Office.

He could be asked to step in and take the finance ministry portfolio as well, which would have the added benefit of ending a power struggle between the bureau, whose role is not yet entirely clear, and the finance ministry, traditionally the manager of the budget.

An ex-health minister and champion of reducing bureaucrats' policy clout, Kan is not regarded as an expert on budget and tax issues.

But that has not kept him from speaking out on policy. Last year Kan declared Japan was in deflation and pressured the Bank of Japan into easing monetary policy in several stages.

KATSUYA OKADA, FOREIGN MINISTER:

Okada, 56, is a fiscal expert with a "Mr Clean" image. But he has his hands full at present trying to soothe U.S.-Japan ties that have been frayed over a dispute over moving a U.S. Marine airbase on Japan's southern island of Okinawa.

A former trade ministry bureaucrat, Okada is known as a fiscal hawk. He said last August, before the Democrats took power, that the party should set a target for fixing Japan's tattered finances.

He has also said Tokyo should not intervene in markets to weaken the yen as long as currency moves match economic fundamentals. [ID:nT4896]

MASAYUKI NAOSHIMA, TRADE MINISTER:

An ex-union official, Naoshima, 64, has expertise on economic policy from a stint as policy chief when the Democrats were in opposition.

The upper house lawmaker blotted his copybook as minister in November when he leaked market-sensitive GDP data in a speech.

Naoshima said before becoming trade minister that the Democrat's campaign pledges could be funded by tapping government reserves and cutting waste, an idea dismissed by critics who say the reserves would quickly dry up. [ID:nT320130] (Reporting by Leika Kihara, Editing by Linda Sieg)