Deputy Prime Minister Naoto Kan officially replaced Hirohisa Fujii as finance minister Thursday after the veteran financial expert resigned for health reasons.

Kan's priorities will be to get the 2010 budget passed as quickly as possible and to get a grip on the government's snowballing debt as concerns mount over Japan's fiscal sustainability.

Experts speaking to The Japan Times on Thursday were split over whether Kan will aggressively expand the debt to keep stimulating the economy or maintain the cap on Japanese government bonds as Fujii did to limit government spending.