New Finance Minister Koriki Jojima said the government must "carefully consider" whether to extend the currency swap agreement with South Korea but refused to be drawn out on whether Tokyo will propose an extension.
"I will not answer a hypothetical question," Jojima, 65, who was appointed finance minister in Monday's Cabinet reshuffle, said Wednesday during a joint interview with The Japan Times and other media outlets.
Relations between Tokyo and Seoul have hit the skids since South Korean President Lee Myung Bak paid a visit in August to disputed Takeshima in the Sea of Japan, a couple of rocky outcroppings called Dokdo by South Korea, which administers them. The islets are the focus of a long-standing territorial dispute as Japan claims them as an inherent part of its territory.