Heizo Takenaka, the former economy minister credited with guiding Japan's longest postwar expansion, has attacked the coalition government for lacking policy direction as it haggles over the next stimulus package.

"The decision-making system in the current government is very messy," Takenaka, who served in Cabinet posts under Junichiro Koizumi from 2001 to 2006, said on the sidelines of a seminar in Seoul. "There's no control tower in the policymaking system."