Sharjah24 – Reuters: Japan's former Olympics minister Shunichi Suzuki is likely to be appointed finance minister in presumptive new Prime Minister Fumio Kishida's cabinet, the Yomiuri daily reported, a key role as the country seeks to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Suzuki, 68, son of former prime minister Zenko Suzuki and brother-in-law of current Finance Minister Taro Aso, is expected to continue Aso's moderate policies, balancing growth and fiscal reform, analysts said on Friday.

Aso is set to become the ruling Liberal Democratic Party's (LDP) vice president, the newspaper said late on Thursday, after Kishida won an LDP leadership vote a day earlier. He is expected to be officially voted in as prime minister when parliament sits on Monday and will announce a cabinet reshuffle on the same day.

Mari Iwashita, chief market economist at Daiwa Securities, said Suzuki, who has long been floated as the next leader of Aso's party faction, will likely follow Aso's footsteps and the finance ministry's policy objectives.