Internal affairs minister Tsutomu Sato said June 22 that he will authorize Yoshifumi Nishikawa's reappointment as president of Japan Post Holdings Co., after the postal chief offered to take a pay cut over the aborted plan to sell the Kampo no Yado resort network.

"It is a tentative 'yes,'" Sato told reporters when asked whether he had decided to approve Nishikawa's reappointment.

Sato's predecessor at the internal affairs ministry, Kunio Hatoyama, resigned rather than reappoint Nishikawa.

Sato also said Prime Minister Taro Aso approved his decision to allow Nishikawa to keep his job.

In a meeting with Sato, Nishikawa offered to give up 30 percent of his pay over the next three months to discipline himself in connection with the failed plan to sell the resort inn network to major leasing company Orix Corp.