BOJ's Kuroda - Will eventually have to debate exit strategy

TOKYO (Reuters) - Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda said on Thursday the central bank will eventually have to debate how to reduce the amount of government debt on its balance sheet to exit from its quantitative easing.

The BOJ will end up holding a lot of long-term government debt, but there are many ways to eventually reduce the pace of debt purchases, Kuroda said in the upper house financial affairs committee.

The BOJ has kept monetary policy steady since in April, when it pledge to double the monetary base via aggressive purchases of government debt to accelerate inflation to 2 percent in roughly two years.

(Reporting by Stanley White; Editing by Shinichi Saoshiro)