Public Management, Home Affairs, Posts and Telecommunications Minister Toranosuke Katayama hinted Friday that the government may intervene to resolve the issue of Chinese telecom companies raising connection fees for phone calls from Japan to China.

"We haven't heard details yet, but will consider appropriate measures depending on the situation after looking into the matter," Katayama said, indicating the ministry may not leave it to private-sector negotiations.

Several Chinese telecom companies notified their Japanese counterparts late last month that they would raise the interconnection fees sharply starting Nov. 1.

Telecom operators in both countries are to hold talks about the extent of the connection fee hikes, with KDDI Corp. and other Japanese carriers planning to decide later on whether to pass on the increase by raising their rates on international calls to China.

The Chinese firms include China Telecommunications Corp., China Netcom Corp., China Mobile Communications Corp. and China United Telecommunications Corp.

Japan places more calls to China than any other country except the United States.