Japan's ex-chief cabinet secretary Kato to be next finance minister, Kyodo says

TOKYO (Reuters) -Japan's former chief cabinet secretary Katsunobu Kato will become the next finance minister when incoming prime minister, Shigeru Ishiba, forms his new cabinet next week, the Kyodo News agency reported on Saturday.

Ishiba is also set to ask Yoshimasa Hayashi to stay on as chief cabinet secretary in the line-up, two people with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters, declining to be identified because they are not authorised to speak to the media.

Ishiba's office could not be immediately be reached for comment.

A former defence minister and foreign minister, Hayashi was among eight candidates who lost to Ishiba in an unpredictable race on Friday to be president of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party. Kato, who has also served as health minister, ran in the race too.

Hayashi has been chief cabinet secretary - a pivotal job that includes being top government spokesperson - since December under Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, who is stepping down after party scandals damaged its popularity.

Ishiba said after winning the LDP race that he planned to form his government on Tuesday after the lower house of parliament - where the LDP has a majority - votes him in as prime minister.

Shinjiro Koizumi, who finished third in the LDP race, will likely be appointed to head the party's election committee, local media reported on Saturday.

(Reporting by Yoshifumi Takemoto and Nobuhiro Kubo;Additional reporting by Brigid Riley and Chang-Ran Kim;Editing by William Mallard and Helen Popper)