The government does not need to ask the Bank of Japan to postpone a vote on whether to raise interest rates at its policy meeting this week, Finance Minister Koji Omi said Tuesday.
"I don't think we are in a phase" where the government needs to invoke the right to ask the BOJ to delay the vote, Omi said, adding that monetary policy is in the hands of the BOJ.
His comment followed a statement Sunday by Hidenao Nakagawa, secretary general of the Liberal Democratic Party, that the government should ask for a delay in the vote at the end of the BOJ Policy Board meeting Thursday.
Many analysts expect the central bank to raise the overnight call rate to 0.5 percent from the current 0.25 percent soon.
The BOJ Law allows the government to ask the Policy Board to postpone a decision on interest rates until the board's following meeting. If such a request is made, the board votes on whether to comply.
Under the law, government officials can take part in the board meeting and state their opinions, but they do not have a vote.
Some officials are worried that a rate hike could dampen already weak consumer spending and derail the economic recovery.
On Monday, Economic and Fiscal Policy Minister Hiroko Ota, who has earlier echoed Nakagaw's opposition to a rate hike, said at the Japan National Press Club that the government has not decided whether it should ask for a delay in the vote.