The government plans to appoint Shunsuke Kagawa, director general of the Finance Ministry's Budget Bureau, as vice finance minister to succeed Yasushi Kinoshita early next month, sources said Thursday.
The leadership change will come before Prime Minister Shinzo Abe decides by the end of this year on whether to raise the consumption tax to 10 percent in October 2015.
Kinoshita, who assumed his current post last June, played a key role in implementing the April 1 tax increase to 8 percent.
Kagawa, 57, a University of Tokyo graduate, entered the Finance Ministry in 1979 and was deputy vice finance minister before assuming the top Budget Bureau post in June 2013.