The government on Thursday said National Public Safety Commission Chairman Sadakazu Tanigaki will assume a new ministerial post in charge of revitalizing the nation's sluggish industrial sector.
Tanigaki, 57, a former financial regulator, will lead the establishment of an industrial revival body proposed under a government economic package released in October.
His appointment will be formalized at a Cabinet meeting Friday, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda told a regular news conference. Tanigaki will head the revival body concurrently with his present role as chief of the safety commission.
Tanigaki is expected to prepare legislation that will pave the way for the establishment of the industrial revival organ. It will be submitted to the Diet in January.
Fukuda said Tanigaki was selected due to his experience in financial affairs.
In 2000, Tanigaki, a House of Representatives member from Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's Liberal Democratic Party, became chairman of the now-defunct Financial Reconstruction Commission, a predecessor of the Financial Services Agency.
On Tuesday, the Cabinet will also launch a task force to formulate the government's basic policy for industrial revival. The task force will be comprised of Cabinet ministers in charge of economic issues, Fukuda said.
The government hopes the new industrial revival body will help banks quickly unload their bad loans.
The new body is expected to purchase banks' bad loans to companies that still have viable prospects. Loans to firms that are doomed to fail would be sold to the Resolution and Collection Corp., a government-backed bad-loan collector.
The scheme was proposed Oct. 30 in the government's comprehensive economic package, which was created to simultaneously speed up banks' bad-loan cleanups and fight deflation.
