LEAD: Japan finance chief Fujii to resign due to poor health+

TOKYO, Jan. 5 Kyodo -
(EDS: RECASTING WITH NEW DEVELOPMENT)
Finance Minister Hirohisa Fujii will step down from his post due to poor
health, a ruling party lawmaker said Tuesday night.

The decision was made after the 77-year-old minister told Prime Minister Yukio
Hatoyama that he wants to resign, said the lawmaker, who spoke on condition of
anonymity.
During talks earlier in the day with Fujii, Hatoyama was asking him to stay in
the Cabinet, according to the lawmaker.
But the government eventually decided to accept Fujii's resignation as he was
adamant, the lawmaker said.
As Fujii's successor, names such as Deputy Prime Minister Naoto Kan, Yoshito
Sengoku, state minister in charge of administrative reform, and Senior Vice
Finance Minister Yoshihiko Noda have been floated by ruling party lawmakers.
''I was told (by Fujii) that his doctors have not yet made a final judgment.
That's all for today,'' Hatoyama told reporters earlier Tuesday evening. ''I
want him to continue to do his best, of course.''
Fujii, who has been undergoing medical tests for about a week, met with
Hatoyama on Tuesday morning after this year's first regular Cabinet meeting.
Fujii, one of the few members of the Cabinet with extensive government
experience, was admitted to hospital on Dec. 28 for the tests, saying he was
exhausted after working to draft the fiscal 2010 budget in the face of the
country's serious fiscal constraints.
''It's about time that a conclusion was made,'' Fujii said he had told
Hatoyama, at a news conference earlier in the day.
Asked by reporters to clarify his remark, Fujii said he was referring to his
doctors' assessment of the results of his medical tests. He said the tests are
ongoing and the final results will likely be obtained soon.
Fujii, who came from a hospital to attend the Cabinet meeting, reiterated that
he will respect the opinions of doctors in deciding whether to take part in
parliamentary deliberations later this month.
''I won't respond to a hypothetical question,'' Fujii said, when asked about
the possibility of his stepping down if the results are not good.
Hatoyama also told reporters there is no need for him to answer hypothetical
questions such as whether Fujii's resignation would have any impact on the
Cabinet.
At the news conference, Fujii declined to go into the details of his physical
condition, only saying he was ''quite exhausted'' after finishing the drafting
of the budget for the year starting April.
Fujii, who is suffering from high blood pressure, met with Hatoyama again in
the afternoon to discuss his next course of action, according to government
officials.
His regular news conference on Wednesday was canceled, the Finance Ministry said.
Fujii's desire to leave his post comes at a delicate time for Hatoyama's
Cabinet, which has seen its approval ratings dwindle in the run-up to the first
real Diet debate with the opposition parties since it was launched in
mid-September.
A 150-day ordinary Diet session is scheduled to be convened Jan. 18 to debate
the proposed 92.30 trillion yen annual budget as well as the second extra
budget for the current fiscal year.
On Monday, Hatoyama pledged in his first news conference of the year that his
government will make all-out efforts to get the two budgets, drafted last month
after tense negotiations, passed soon to avoid the country's economy from
deteriorating further.
Fujii had considered retiring from politics earlier but changed his mind just
before the general election in August at Hatoyama's request.
He has repeatedly said he is performing his ''last public duty'' because of the
Democratic Party of Japan's landslide victory in the election, which ended a
half-century of nearly unbroken rule by the Liberal Democratic Party.
He also served as finance minister from 1993 to 1994, during the LDP's first
spell out of power since its foundation in 1955.
==Kyodo
2010-01-05 23:44:16