[Provisional Translation]

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe held the tenth meeting in 2015 of the Council on Economic and Fiscal Policy at the Prime Minister's Office.
At the meeting, debate took place on “towards the formulation of the Basic Policies.”  

Taking into account the discussion, the Prime Minister said,

“The draft of the Basic Policies discussed here today contains measures that will ensure that Japan exits deflation and initiatives that will further expand the positive cycle of the economy. Furthermore, in addition to enhancing and accelerating the growth strategy, the draft states our goal of increasing the latent growth of the Japanese economy toward growth of more than 2% by fostering the public service sector as a new growth engine through the advancement of expenditure reform and revenue reform.

In line with the basic philosophy of the Abe Cabinet that ‘there can be no fiscal soundness without economic revitalization,’ we will flesh out the Plan for Economic and Fiscal Revitalization. As part of that, we will seek the wide participation of the public in expenditure reform and launch national movements to industrialize public services, reform incentives, and foster public services innovation. In doing so, we will be able to control public spending without lowering the quality or level of public services. For expenditures as a whole, included in the draft policies are measures that strengthen the initiatives of the Abe Cabinet to date, promote reforms that treat no area as sacred or off-limits, and advance initiatives in the regions that are in line with the initiatives of the national Government.

In order to ensure confidence in the Government and its finances, the Abe Cabinet will maintain the goal of achieving fiscal soundness by FY2020. That is the purpose of this Plan for Economic and Fiscal Revitalization.

I would like Minister Amari to also advance debate among the ruling parties based on this draft and today’s discussion, and compile the results of that at the next council meeting.”