Yosano formerly held cabinet rank in Liberal Democratic Party governments, and was an LDP member.
"We've never tried to produce super-rich people, and we've never left poor people suffering without support, " Yosano said.
Admittedly, this is not likely to be the approach of Yosano and the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) or others.
Yosano has advocated an increase in the current 5 percent consumption tax.
Yesterday the point man, Yosano Kaoru, caused a stir by hinting about raising the minimum age for drawing benefits and reducing amounts paid.
Yosano was Finance Ministry during an earlier Liberal Democratic Party government.
The embodiment of the new urgency and resolve to find solutions is the appointment of a 72-year-old veteran fiscal policy expert, Yosano Kaoru, as the new Minister for Economics and Finance.
Though Mr Yosano, the chief secretary, is a firm advocate of raising the consumption tax to plug Japan's budget deficits and pay for future pensions, Mr Abe appears in no mood to launch such a debate.
Some of his cabinet appointments reflect this change of focus: the new finance minister, Fukushiro Nukaga, and the new chief cabinet secretary, Kaoru Yosano, are supporters of fiscal restructuring and have better relations with the bureaucracy than their predecessors.
ECONOMIST: Another blow to Japan's Shinzo Abe as a minister goes
The Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and the newly installed Minister of Finance and Economy, Mr. Yosano, has been fairly consistent in wanting to retain the insurance structure of the pension scheme, but has been willing to tap consumption tax revenues to fill part of the funding gap.
The chief lines of debate will be drawn between Kaoru Yosano, a former economy minister who argues for a swift start to hikes in the consumption tax, and Hidenao Nakagawa, once a close adviser to Mr Koizumi, who says the bureaucracy must be fixed and supply-side measures taken first.
Meanwhile Kaoru Yosano, the new economy minister with a clear sense of what needs to be done to overhaul the country's finances in the face of an ageing population, was ordered to cobble together a fiscal-stimulus package in response to panicky (and probably unfounded) fears that the economy was tipping into a deep recession again.
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