Finance Minister Masajuro Shiokawa said Wednesday he will meet with U.S. Treasury Secretary John Snow on the sidelines of international meetings in Washington later this week.
"We will need to review the state of our economies," Shiokawa told a news conference.
Shiokawa is to attend a meeting in Washington of top financial officials of the Group of Seven major economies, as well as a gathering of the International Monetary and Financial Committee, the International Monetary Fund's policy-setting panel.
Shiokawa said that although he and Snow may touch on the conflict in Iraq, he has no plans to discuss the issue in depth.
Speculation has been growing over whether financing reconstruction of Iraq will be taken up in the bilateral talks.
Shiokawa indicated he may brief Snow about a Japanese government-backed entity to buy bad loans and help rebuild heavily indebted companies that are still considered viable.
"The legislation on Industrial Revitalization Corp. has been enacted, and the United States appears to be interested in the topic," he said.