The Group of Seven finance ministers and central bank governors are likely to join the debate over Japanese prices later this month in Italy — a debate in which the government and BOJ continue to see falling prices in a different light.

Miyazawa said the G7 countries may discuss Japan's prices at their meeting in Palermo, Sicily, on Feb. 17 but that they will probably not request that policy measures be taken on prices.

"I don't use the term deflation in judging the recent price falls," Finance Minister Kiichi Miyazawa said Tuesday, "but we have to carefully monitor the falling trend."