Yesterday the point man, Yosano Kaoru, caused a stir by hinting about raising the minimum age for drawing benefits and reducing amounts paid.

FORBES: Work Begins on Reforming the National Pension (3)

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.

FORBES: Critical Moment in Japanese Politics and Society

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 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.

ECONOMIST: A grey man tries to show his gumption

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.

ECONOMIST: Japan