The package follows a wave of layoffs and signs that firms will curb hiring and freeze workers' salaries this year as the global financial crisis takes its toll on the world's No. 2 economy.
"The priority now should be on protecting jobs," Labour Minister Yoichi Masuzoe told a news conference.
"We want to announce measures for jobs on the scale of around 1.5 trillion yen," he said of the plan, which media reported included money to retrain unemployed people.
