Vice Transport Minister Masahiko Kurono on Thursday urged the JR group firms to reverse their stand and bear an additional burden in a scheme to repay 27.8 trillion yen in debt left by the former Japanese National Railways.
A committee of the prime minister's Conference on Fiscal Structural Reform basically agreed to the scheme earlier this week; it calls on the JR firms to pay part of JNR employees' pensions.
"If the JR firms do not agree to the scheme, the whole agreement might fall apart," Kurono said. "This is something that we can not compromise on by any means."
Kurono said it would be difficult to obtain financial cooperation from other parties in the scheme if JR refuses to chip in.
The ministry is asking JR group firms to shoulder 380 billion yen of a shortfall that emerged when a mutual pension fund of former JNR employees was merged into Employees' Pension Insurance.
The seven JR companies have firmly and repeatedly rejected calls that it participate in any repayment scheme, arguing that they have already repaid their fair share of the JNR debt.