Japan mulling $107 billion for job-market steps: media

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan is considering spending 10 trillion yen ($107.4 billion) over the space of three years to support the job market, a move that could further stretch its dire public finances, a newspaper reported on Wednesday.

Lawmakers have been calling out more for extra spending after Japan's economy slipped into recession for the first time in seven years, with the global credit crisis hurting corporate revenues and the job market.

Under the scheme being floated by Prime Minister Taro Aso and some of his cabinet, the government would spend around 3 trillion yen a year to create new job opportunities and help those seeking work, the Asahi daily said in an unsourced report.

That sum would not come under the government's budgetary ceiling for each fiscal year and could be funded by issuing new bonds, the paper said.

But the top government spokesman said the administration had not discussed such a plan.

"I haven't heard anything like that. We would need to find a source of funding for such measures, but realistically I think it would be difficult," Chief Cabinet Secretary Takeo Kawamura told a news conference.

The ruling Liberal Democratic Party on Tuesday urged Aso to put off his plans for fiscal consolidation in light of the weak economy, Japanese media reported.

Aso told reporters that while the government was sticking to its budget guidelines, it was also necessary to act flexibly to cope with a deteriorating economy.

Putting the consolidation plan on hold would signal a major shift away from Tokyo's fiscal austerity policy introduced in 2006 to deal with the public deficit, which is by far the highest among industrialized nations at an eye-watering 150 percent of gross domestic product.

(Reporting by Leika Kihara; Editing by Hugh Lawson)