World
Fujii has been reported as telling prime minister Hatoyama he wants to resign because he is suffering from health problems.
Updated : Jan 06, 2010, 01:06 PM IST
Japanese prime minister Yukio Hatoyama wants his 77-year-old finance minister, Hirohisa Fujii, to stay on in his post, he told reporters on Wednesday.
Fujii has been reported as telling Hatoyama he wants to resign because he is suffering from health problems, after weeks of wrangling over how to balance the deeply indebted country's budget, without pushing the economy back into recession.
"He has given birth to a ''child'' in the form of the budget, and I would like to see him bring that child up," Hatoyama told reporters.
"But it is a question of his health, so we also have to think about the opinions of the doctors," he added.