A group of Japan Airlines Corp. retirees asked transport minister Seiji Maehara on Wednesday to provide a better explanation of the government's plan to cut JAL's pension benefits and urged that the issue be resolved via discussions and not through a special law.
"We have been asking to resolve this issue through discussion," but opportunities have not been provided, said Tsutomu Watanabe, a representative of the JAL retiree group that was formed to study possible revisions to JAL's pension program.
"We have never said that we oppose everything (about the pension cut) and we never said there is no need for discussion," Watanabe told a news conference at the transport ministry.