In what some analysts see as a transparent effort to prop up embattled Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori, Financial Reconstruction Minister Hideyuki Aizawa and LDP policy chief Shizuka Kamei agreed Tuesday that banks should be urged to stop unloading their cross-held shares.
Later in the day, Aizawa told Mori of his intention to call on banks to hold back on selling off their cross-holdings.
"Stock prices are too low, and we cannot stand around idle," Aizawa, who also heads the Financial Reconstruction Commission, later told reporters.