Japan Post President Masaharu Ikuta said Friday he is against calls for the new public postal corporation to dump more funds from postal savings and insurance into the flagging stock market.

"I don't think it is appropriate to use our resources to temporarily shore up the (stock) market," Ikuta said.

Ruling coalition lawmakers have recently been calling on the new entity to inject more money to lift share prices from 20-year lows.

Ikuta's comment came a day after private-sector members of the government's Council on Economic and Fiscal Policy presented an 18-point plan that includes putting more Japan Post funds into stocks.

"We want to operate independently while seeking profits in each business," Ikuta said. "We don't take temporary steps similar to price-keeping operations, even if the stock market faces such a tough time."

Ikuta, formerly chairman of shipping company Mitsui O.S.K. Lines Ltd., said the corporation's clients are mainly small-lot individual customers and it is imperative the entity manages the funds "as safely and advantageously as possible."

"Despite the fact that the combined amount of deposits happens to be big, we should not think that this money belongs to the corporation or the state," he said. "We must manage funds from the side of individual customers."

Ikuta said the corporation has postal savings and "kampo" life insurance worth about 355 trillion yen. Only about 1 percent of some 235 trillion yen in postal savings funds and 4 percent of about 120 trillion yen in postal insurance funds are currently invested in stocks.

The entity was inaugurated April 1 to take over the three services of mail delivery, postal savings and kampo life insurance from the governmental Postal Services Agency.

Ministers must debate

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi on Friday ordered his economic ministers to discuss early next week plans to boost the sagging stock market, according to Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda.

"We will discuss measures fully and implement them steadily, starting with steps we can do swiftly," Fukuda told reporters.

Financial Services Minister Heizo Takenaka meanwhile told reporters that he wants to study every possible option, stressing that the plans are not aimed at lifting share prices artificially.

Koizumi and other members of the Council on Economic and Fiscal Policy agreed Thursday that economic ministers would meet next week to discuss specific ways of countering the nation's slumping stock markets, with the Nikkei average hovering near its lowest levels in 20 years.

Meanwhile, Finance Minister Masajuro Shiokawa said he believes the functions of the government-backed Banks' Shareholdings Purchase Corp. should be bolstered as part of the stock-boosting effort.

"There appears to be room for improvement, so I hope necessary revisions will be made to ensure the functions of the corporation," Shiokawa told reporters in the Diet.

Coalition lawmakers and private-sector members of a key economic panel are calling for a requirement whereby banks must provide funds to the corporation when selling their shares to the entity to be revised.