Financial World

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.

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.

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 totaling 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.

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.

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 stabilizes 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."