The Bank of Japan does not need to alter its 2 percent inflation target or set a target for consumer prices, excluding both food and energy, Haruhiko Kuroda, the government's nominee for next central bank governor, said on Monday.

The BOJ's price target is currently focused on core prices, which exclude fresh food but include energy costs, said Kuroda, 68, president of the Asian Development Bank.

Japan's core-core consumer prices exclude food and energy, which is similar to the measure of core consumer prices used in the United States.

Kuroda, an advocate of aggressive monetary easing, spoke to lawmakers in the upper house of parliament at a confirmation hearing.

Last month, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe named Kuroda, Japan's former top currency diplomat, to be the new Bank of Japan governor in a shift for radical BOJ easing to end nearly two decades of deflation.

(Reporting by Stanley White and Tetsushi Kajimoto; Editing by Kim Coghill)