Further government sale of Japan Post Holdings not yet worked out - finance minister

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan Finance Minister Taro Aso said on Tuesday that the government had not yet reached the stage of finalising a further sale of its shares in Japan Post Holdings Co Ltd <6178.T>.

The Nikkei business daily reported on Monday that the Ministry of Finance could sell about 1.2 trillion yen to 1.4 trillion yen (8.05 billion pounds to 9.39 billion pounds) in Japan Post shares as early as next fiscal year, which starts in April.

"We have not made arrangements yet on the additional sale," Aso told reporters after a regular cabinet meeting.

The government had just raised 1.3 trillion yen in September from the sale of Japan Post stock. It has said it aims to raise some 4 trillion yen in sales of shares in Japan Post firms by the 2022 fiscal year to help fund reconstruction of areas devastated by an earthquake and tsunami in 2011.

That implies a further 1.2 trillion yen of share sales sometime in the next five years.

(Reporting Tetsushi Kajimoto; Editing by Minami Funakoshi and Chang-Ran Kim)