Welfare minister Chikara Sakaguchi said Friday the government should impose a ceiling on public pension benefits for high-income earners as part of fiscal 2004 reforms of the pension system.

Health, Labor and Welfare Minister Sakaguchi said it is advisable to discuss an upper limit for pension benefits being paid to high-income earners.

"It is necessary to strike a balance between benefits being paid to them and those being paid to low-income earners," Sakaguchi told reporters.

He also proposed setting an upper limit on pension premiums and other public burdens.

Sakaguchi said it is desirable to ensure that the average corporate employee does not have to pay more than 20 percent of his or her salary for pension premiums.

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's Council on Economic and Fiscal Policy has called for a drastic reduction, to around 50 percent, of the potential public burden -- the ratio of taxes and social insurance premiums to national income.

The ratio, estimated at around 37 percent in fiscal 2002, is expected to climb to 61 percent in 2025 unless the current pension system is revised to cushion the impact of the rapid graying of Japan's population, as well as increases in pension payments and medical expenses, according to Cabinet Office estimates.

The Finance Ministry has proposed curbing both pension benefits and the public's burden on pension premium significantly.

The welfare ministry, for its part, called for an increase in government contributions to the pension system as well as measures to curb pension payments.

The revised pension reform law stipulates that the government's contribution to the basic portion of the pension program be increased from the current one-third to half in 2004.

The law calls for the increase after the government secures "a stable source of revenue" for the plan by 2004.

On Friday, Sakaguchi sought public consensus on the planned increase in the government's contributions.

"Given falling birthrates and the aging of society, insurance premiums alone could become unable to cover pension benefits in 20 or 30 years," he said. "We should try to win the people's understanding for the government to make a larger contribution."