Finance Minister Shoichi Nakagawa said Friday the government has yet to decide how to pay for next year's increase in contributions to the national pension program.
Nakagawa, speaking to reporters in Tokyo, was responding to a Nikkei newspaper report that said the government may sell bonds to finance contributions that will rise from the current one-third to a half in April.
"I'm aware of the news report, but nothing has been decided and we haven't started discussions yet," he said.
The government will sell ¥2.3 trillion in bonds to finance the extra pension burden, the Nikkei reported, without saying where it obtained the information.
Nakagawa also said the government may consider measures to stimulate economic growth in addition to the package currently being debated in the Diet.