Deputy Prime Minister Naoto Kan on Tuesday reacted cautiously to creating a special law to forcibly cut the amount of Japan Airlines Corp.'s corporate pension benefits to rebuild the struggling airline.
"Pensions must be protected in principle," Kan, who is also state minister for the National Policy Unit, told a news conference.
"There is an issue of fairness in relation to people who are in other (corporate) pension programs," Kan said. "It is a very difficult issue" and several other options on how to deal with the issue are under discussion, he added.
Slashing JAL's corporate pensions has become a pillar of the airline's reconstruction plan that a government task force aims to compile this week by securing broad consent from JAL's main creditor banks for a debt waiver.
A special law to slash JAL's corporate pensions is being considered to avert a possible public backlash over the use of government money to help turn around the airline.