Japan Finance Minister Hirohisa Fujii is resigning

Japan Finance Minister Hirohisa Fujii is resigning. He checked into a hospital late last year facing high blood pressure and exhaustion. Well, if I had 5 yen every time some Japanese official checked into a hospital to avoid something unpleasant, I'd be ... okay, he's an old guy and has been working really hard, so who knows. Anyway, here is what Bloomberg says. I'll try to look at some other articles later today:

From Bloomberg, Hatoyama to Accept Fujii’s Resignation, Kyodo Says:

• Hatoyama tried to stop him, but Fujii insisted.
• "Investors would examine any successor’s credentials on fiscal matters after Fujii championed avoiding an increase in new bond sales." [That's interesting. But the budget is bad as it is. Would it have been worse without Fujii?]
• Fujii was good because he was veteran and had connections and so and so forth; he was perceived as safe. [So he was good because he was perceived as a person who wouldn't rock the boat? What if the boat needed rocking?]
• "Financial markets indicated little immediate concern over doubts about Fujii’s future ..." [In other words, so far this isn't really big news.]
• "While the DPJ-led coalition’s majority in the Diet means Hatoyama’s 2010 budget is likely to be little affected by a Fujii departure, it could complicate any effort to compile an additional fiscal stimulus ... " [Anything that keeps the government from spending money is good.]
• "In the course of compiling the 2010 budget, Fujii urged ministers to restrain outlays after their requests amounted to an unprecedented 95 trillion yen. He said the government must keep its promise of holding bond sales around 44 trillion yen to contain the world’s largest public debt burden -- even after Hatoyama indicated he wouldn’t strictly adhere to the cap should more spending be necessary." [The budget is ¥92.299 trillion, so okay, he saved almost ¥3 trillion yen, I guess. Or perhaps this is just one big smoke and mirrors game like most politics.]
• Without Fuji fiscal discipline might relax. [Okay, we'll see. The government needs more fiscal discipline not less.]
• "Some analysts said Fujii wouldn’t necessarily be missed by investors after he indicated he supported a stronger yen, only to later say that the government is prepared to step into the currency market to stem its gains. As finance minister, Fujii is responsible for overseeing Japan’s exchange-rate policy." [I didn't realize this was so serious a gaffé.]