TOKYO (AFX-ASIA) - Finance Minister Masajuro Shiokawa said he agrees that preferential tax treatment should be offered on dividend payments to investors to help boost the stockmarket. "It seems a good idea to offer investors who receive dividend payments preferential tax treatment but we cannot revise the tax law as early as people expect," Shiokawa told a parliamentary Lower House economic and fiscal policy committee. "We will revise the tax system step-by-step."