日本财务大臣藤井裕久(Hirohisa Fujii)昨日表示，因健康原因希望辞职，此举对上任不久的鸠山由纪夫(Yukio Hatoyama)政府将构成新的打击。
Japan's finance minister, Hirohisa Fujii, yesterday expressed his desire to quit for health reasons, dealing a fresh blow to the fledgling government of Yukio Hatoyama, prime minister.
现年77岁的藤井上月底因高血压和疲惫住进了医院，他向首相鸠山表示希望辞职，以免他的健康问题影响议会对预算的讨论。
Mr Fujii, 77, who was hospitalised late last month for high blood pressure and exhaustion, told Mr Hatoyama that he wanted to resign to avoid disrupting budget talks in the Diet session, due to his ill health.
藤井仍在等待体检结果，以确定他是否适合恢复工作。他表示：“我将尊重医生的判断。”
Mr Fujii, who is still awaiting the results of medical tests to determine whether he is fit for the job, said: “I will respect the judgement of the doctors.”
据报道，鸠山不愿接受藤井的辞呈。他对媒体表示：“藤井工作非常努力，我希望他继续尽力。”
Mr Hatoyama, who has reportedly declined to accept Mr Fujii's resignation, told the media: “Mr Fujii has worked very hard and I would like [him] to continue doing his best.”
财相辞职将削弱鸠山的地位，他正在竭力控制一宗政治献金丑闻的影响，并推动通过一份创纪录的预算，以重振低迷的日本经济。鸠山领导的日本民主党 在去年夏季的大选中获得压倒性胜利。但在鸠山的首相任期进入第五个月之际，由于政治献金丑闻、缺乏领导能力和经济恶化等因素，他的支持率已大幅下滑。
The resignation of his finance minister would weaken Mr Hatoyama, who is fighting to contain the fallout from a political funding scandal and pass a record budget to revitalise Japan's anaemic economy. In his fifth month in office, since his Democratic Party of Japan won a landslide victory last summer, Mr Hatoyama has suffered a sharp slide in popularity owing to the funding scandal, a lack of leadership and a deteriorating economy.
藤井在财政政策方面属于鹰派人士。他是具有政府部门经验的少数几名民主党部长之一。在遏制政府的支出冲动、把日本新国债的发行量限制在44万亿日元方面，他起到了重要作用。
Mr Fujii, a fiscal hawk, is one of the few DPJ ministers with experience of governing. He has been instrumental in containing the government's propensity to spend and keeping the new issuance of Japanese government bonds to Y44,000bn.
“他设法确立了44万亿日元这个上限，这是一个非常积极的贡献，”摩根士丹利(Morgan Stanley)常驻东京的首席日本经济学家罗伯特•费尔德曼(Robert Feldman)表示。
“The fact that he managed to establish that Y44,000bn ceiling is a very positive contribution,” said Robert Feldman, chief economist at Morgan Stanley in Tokyo.
一些观察人士表示，藤井的辞职决定暴露了民主党内部的尖锐分歧，尤其是在民主党干事长小泽一郎(Ichiro Ozawa)与其反对者之间。
Mr Fujii's decision to resign exposes bitter divisions within the DPJ, particularly between Ichiro Ozawa, DPJ secretary general, and those who oppose him, some observers say.