Finance Minister Hirohisa Fujii was admitted to a hospital Monday to undergo medical tests and take some rest after weeks of hard work drafting the fiscal 2010 budget, government officials said.
Fujii will stay in the hospital about 10 days. The officials said the 77-year-old minister is suffering from exhaustion and high blood pressure.
Fujii was admitted to the hospital around 10 a.m., the officials said. The name of the hospital has been withheld.
He plans to attend the next regular Cabinet meeting Jan. 5, the Finance Ministry said.
Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama's Cabinet, launched in mid-September, has been drafting an annual budget for the first time. The budget draft for the year starting in April, standing at a record ¥92.30 trillion, was approved Friday by the Cabinet after many twists and turns.
Fujii, the eldest member of Hatoyama's Cabinet, had planned to retire from politics but changed his mind at the last minute before the last general election in August, in which the Democratic Party of Japan trounced the Liberal Democratic Party.
Fujii has repeatedly said he is performing his "last public duty" as finance chief.
He served previously as finance minister from 1993 to 1994, during the LDP's first spell out of power since its founding in 1955.