77歲的藤井裕久，是鳩山政府的頭號經濟與財政問題專家，現任內閣最高齡的部長，他的辭職，是鳩山內閣首位辭職的部長。 藤井去年底感到相當疲勞，加上血壓高，住進醫院檢查。他週二（1月5日）因健康狀況欠佳，兩度和鳩山見面表達辭意。
首相鳩山由紀夫6日任命副相菅直人出任財務大臣，菅直人將面臨艱鉅挑戰，包括必須在擴大政府支出以提振經濟的同時，控制公共債務規模。菅直人仍同時兼任副首相。
藤井辭職前堅持把下個財政年度的新債額度控制在44兆日圓（4,800億美元），與今年度相同。藤井是一位資深的財經官員，在財務省任職21年，他反對大幅的赤字預算，被視為傳統由財經官僚領導政府施政的傳統。鳩山內閣責是希望由政治人物來領導國家，官僚能對政治人物負責；鳩山也因無法掌我財務省飽受批評。
菅直人是一位反貪污的公民運動人士，而且沒有什麼財經背景。在菅直人的第一次記者會上，他表示要讓財務省成為中央政府改變得模範。讓政府的基金與財務省所屬的公司更透明並接受更多監督。由他出任全由第二大市場的財長，真像是好萊屋的電影情節。
63歲的菅直人接下的是飽受通貨緊縮困擾的日本經濟，也將負責管理全球最大的公共債務，投資人可能密切關注他是否會謹守避免增加發行公債的承諾。菅直人近幾個月常發言討論日本的經濟挑戰、敦促日本央行加大對抗通縮的力度，並支持日圓貶值。上個月他曾表示樂見日圓自14年高點回落，這個立場與藤井有天壤之別，藤井去年9月上任後多次暗示他支持日圓走強，因為強勢日圓有助於提高家庭的消費力。
News Analysis Change in Japan a Tough Task for Finance Minister By MARTIN FACKLER TOKYO — It sounds like a script written for Hollywood: an idealistic reformer put in charge of cleaning up his nation’s most powerful center of entrenched bureaucratic influence.
entrench v. to establish something very firmly so that it is very difficult to change 使處於牢固地位；牢固確立
Political experts say that the appointment Thursday of Naoto Kan, a former civic campaigner against government corruption, to run the Finance Ministry does just that, pitting a veteran bureaucracy fighter against the most formidable of the central ministries that have presided over Japan’s postwar economic rise and subsequent stagnation. 藤井裕久是日本新內閣中年齡最大的大臣，有在財務省工作21年的豐富經驗。現在成為鳩山內閣中第一個辭職的大臣。日本副首相兼國家戰略局擔當大臣菅直人現在被任命為新財務大臣。"
They say that the choice of Mr. Kan, a deputy prime minister with limited experience in running the nation’s economy, shows the desire of the new prime minister, Yukio Hatoyama, (首相鳩山由紀夫)to step up efforts to achieve his government’s main goal: changing the way Japan is governed by shifting power to elected politicians, away from career bureaucrats.
“Mr. Kan is the administration’s most recognizable face when it comes to overcoming the bureaucracy,” said Tomoaki Iwai, a politics professor at Nihon University in Tokyo. “This appointment shows Mr. Hatoyama’s desire to show his resolve.” Mr. Kan will have his work cut out for him, battling a secretive institution that claims historical roots going back 13 centuries and that has long drawn the best and brightest graduates from top universities. The ministry has long wielded enormous influence over Japan, the world’s second largest economy, using its broad budgetary powers to control the nation’s purse strings. 
Yuriko Nakao/Reuters
Finance Minister Naoto Kan, who took office this week, has limitedexperience in running Japan's economy, but he is known for challenginggovernment corruption and bureaucracy.
In his first news conference since taking office, Mr. Kan vowed Thursday to impose his will on the ministry.
“In ways both good and bad, the Finance Ministry has been a symbolic presence in Kasumigaseki,” said Mr. Kan, 63, referring to the district in Tokyo where the central ministries’ head offices are located. “It will now become a model of how to change Kasumigaseki.” 霞が関（かすみがせき）は、東京都千代田区の地名。霞ヶ関とも書く。なお、同地にある地下鉄の駅は「霞ケ関」と表記する（ケが大文字）。 a district in Chiyoda Ward in Tokyo, Japan. It is the location of most of Japan's cabinet ministry offices.
In his previous role as deputy prime minister, Mr. Kan was one of two top officials directing the Hatoyama government’s still-early efforts to make the bureaucracy more answerable to elected politicians, and to drag policy making out of smoky back rooms. But Mr. Hatoyama has come under criticism that he has failed to rein in the powerful Finance Ministry, which analysts said still played a leading role in drawing up the new government’s revised budget for 2010. One of the founding members of Mr. Hatoyama’s Democratic Party, Mr. Kan first gained fame as a battler of bureaucracy during his brief stint as health minister in the mid-1990s, when he exposed the Health Ministry’s failure to prevent the spread of H.I.V.-tainted blood used in transfusions. stint n. a period of time that you spend working somewhere or doing a particular activity 從事某項工作（或活動）的時間
In challenging the Finance Ministry, Mr. Kan faces an uphill fight that could determine the success of the fledgling government’s efforts to bring change, said Professor Iwai and other analysts. The ministry has successfully resisted past efforts to curtail its budget-making authority, though in the late 1990s it did lose its powers to regulate the financial industry and its control over the nation’s central bank, the Bank of Japan. fledgling n. 1. a young bird that has just learnt to fly （剛會飛的）幼鳥
2. a person, an organization or a system that is new and without experience 初出茅廬的人
curtail v. to limit something or make it last for a shorter time 限制；縮短；減縮
“This won’t be ‘Mr. Smith Goes to Washington,’ ” Mr. Iwai said. “He cannot just demonize the ministry. He has to find a way to win the bureaucrats over to his side and use them effectively.” demonize vt. 使成魔鬼;使似魔鬼;使著魔
The new government’s success in fulfilling its promises to make Japan more democratically accountable could largely rest on Mr. Kan’s ability to control the Finance Ministry, which is widely seen here as one of the last bastions of Japan’s crumbling postwar order. Mr. Hatoyama badly needs a political victory as he faces mounting criticism over political financing scandals and a spat with the United States, Japan’s traditional protector, over an air base on Okinawa. bastion n. 1. a group of people or a system that protects a way of life or a belief when it seems that it may disappear 堡壘；捍衞者 (formal) 2. a place that military forces are defending 堡壘；防禦工事
crumble v.1. to break or break something into very small pieces （使）破碎，成碎屑
2. if a building or piece of land is crumbling, parts of it are breaking off 坍塌；損壞；崩裂
3. to begin to fail or get weaker or to come to an end （開始漸漸）衰退，衰弱；崩潰；瓦解；消亡
Mr. Kan replaced Hirohisa Fujii, 77, who stepped down for health reasons. Though respected in the Democratic Party, Mr. Fujii was facing increasing criticism in the Japanese news media for allowing ministry bureaucrats to control the 2010 budget, undermining the new government’s efforts to put politicians in charge. On Thursday, Mr. Kan vowed to be different from previous finance ministers, who tended to defend the ministry’s interests and to advocate policies fed to them by ministry bureaucrats. During his inaugural news conference, he spent much less time speaking about financial policy than speaking about how he would strengthen Japanese democracy by bringing the ministry to heel. bring somebody/something to heel
1. to force somebody to obey you and accept discipline 使某人就範；迫使某人服從（紀律）
2. to make a dog come close to you 讓狗靠近；喚狗來到身邊
“The minister is not a representative of the ministry,” Mr. Kan told reporters. “He is a representative of the people.” As if to underscore his lack of experience in financial policy, he briefly stirred up currency markets on Thursday by saying at the news conference that the yen should be weaker, a comment taken by traders as meaning the government may intervene to drive down the currency’s value. He later said he was misunderstood, and did not mean to imply that the government would weaken the yen. Mr. Kan left little room for misunderstanding in his criticism of ministry bureaucrats. He threatened to replace uncooperative ministry officials. He also vowed to increase public oversight of so-called special accounts, vast pools of money from pension funds and elsewhere that his and other ministries have controlled with little disclosure. Lastly, he promised to bring similar public exposure to the thousands of public corporations that are controlled by ministries, and that critics say are used to provide comfortable retirement jobs for former bureaucrats. Mr. Kan said the ministry’s role as budget compiler gave it a view of the inner workings of other ministries as well. He vowed to make this information public in order to aid the government’s efforts to exert more control over the entire national bureaucracy. “The Finance Ministry has all sorts of information, and is in a position to see inside of the pocketbooks” of other ministries, he said. “I will make that information public.” Copyright 2010 The New York Times Company
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/09/world/asia/09japan.html?ref=world
The story was taken from The New York Times. The author of the story and The New York Times are not involved with, nor endorse the production of this blog.
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