With opinion polls showing that the Democratic Party of Japan is almost certain to win power in Sunday's general election, various names are already being floated as candidates for its first Cabinet.
For finance minister, DPJ supreme adviser Hirohisa Fujii is being touted as a top candidate, party members said.
Fujii was finance minister in the administrations of Morihiro Hosokawa and Tsutomu Hata from 1993 to 1994 — the only period when the long-dominant Liberal Democratic Party was out of power.