New Finance Minister Jun Azumi repeated Monday that he may ask the public to pay higher taxes to shoulder the burden of reconstructing the disaster-hit Tohoku region, saying he is ready to do his utmost to secure the fiscal resources.
In a group interview at the Finance Ministry, Azumi, who was appointed Friday, pledged the government will do all it can to cut wasteful spending.
But efforts to rebuild the disaster-hit area and its costs "shouldn't be (a debt left) to future generations," he said.