* Outgoing finmin frets about exporters' earnings
* New finmin favours stronger yen in policy shift
* Yen near 7-month high against dollar (Adds background)
By Stanley White
TOKYO, Sept 15 (Reuters) - Sudden currency moves are undesirable as a rising yen could have a big impact on exporters' earnings, Japan's outgoing Finance Minister Kaoru Yosano said on Tuesday.
The yen hit 90.18 against a weakening dollar on Monday, its highest since February, and was trading around 91 yen on Tuesday.
The dollar index, a measure of the greenback against six other major currencies, was also near a one-year low due to growing talk that Asian central banks were switching assets into euros from dollars.
The yen's gains could prove to be the first test of Japan's incoming government led by the Democratic Party, which has indicated it favours a stronger currency but has never governed the country.
"I don't know what the appropriate level of the yen is," Yosano told a news conference after a cabinet meeting.
"But I can say that sudden moves are not desirable."
Incoming Japanese leader Yukio Hatoyama has decided to appoint veteran lawmaker Hirohisa Fujii as finance minister, the Nikkei business daily said on Tuesday.
Hatoyama will take office on Wednesday after his party's huge election win over the long-dominant Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), of which Yosano is a member.
Fujii has said a strong currency is good for Japan because it increases consumers' purchasing power, and the government should not intervene unless currency rates move abnormally.
That marks a departure from Yosano, who told reporters on Tuesday that a stronger yen threatens Japan's global competitiveness.
The outgoing LDP intervened heavily earlier in the decade to stop a rising yen from harming Japan's exports. It last intervened in March 2004 after a 15-month spree in which 35 trillion yen ($385 billion) was sold to protect economic growth.
Other Democratic Party lawmakers have also made comments suggesting they would rather let the yen strengthen to benefit households than to weaken the currency for the sake of the country's major exporters.
Still, analysts are unsure how the Democratic Party will react to a rising yen once it is in power.
Voters swept the Democrats to a landslide victory in a national election on Aug. 30.
Japan's outstanding debt is the largest among developed countries at around 170 percent of gross domestic product. ($1=90.90 Yen) (Editing by Michael Watson)