Former Finance Minister Hirohisa Fujii said he opposes Bank of Japan inflation targets proposed by members of his ruling party because rising consumer prices would hurt the elderly and salaried workers.

"I'm very much opposed," Fujii said in a interview earlier this week at his office in Tokyo. "We must not invite inflation."

Fujii is the latest voice to come out against the proposal to fight Japan's prolonged deflation by, as one step, revising a 1998 law that ensures the central bank's autonomy. Former Bank of Japan Deputy Gov. Toshiro Muto said Monday that such a policy would do little to end price declines in the world's second-largest economy.