Hikaru Matsunaga (松永 光, Matsunaga Hikaru, 23 November 1928 – 11 October 2022) was a Japanese politician of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) who briefly served as the Minister of Finance from 27 January to 30 July 1998.

[9] Mitsuzuka was forced to resign due to corrupt behaviour of the officials at the ministry.

[10] In April 1998, Matsunaga reported that 112 ministry officials would be punished due to their excessive entertainment from banks, brokerage firms and insurers under their supervision.

[11] Matsunaga's term as finance minister was short lived, and he resigned on 30 July 1998, replaced by Kiichi Miyazawa, another veteran LDP politician.

[12] In addition to these cabinet roles, Matsunaga held the following positions in the Diet: Chairman of the lower house budget committee until 1998,[9] director of the Diet education committee and vice-chairman of the PARC education division.