[Provisional Translation]

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe held the 12th meeting of the Council on Overcoming Population Decline and Vitalizing Local Economy in Japan at the Prime Minister's Office.

During the meeting, opinions were exchanged on the Basic Policy for Overcoming Population Decline and Vitalizing Local Economy 2017.

Based on the exchange of opinions, the Prime Minister said,

"Thank you for discussing the draft Basic Policy for Overcoming Population Decline and Vitalizing Local Economy 2017 today.

In order to raise the average income in the regions, we will invest in human resources to improve productivity. To that end, we will offer prioritized support for advanced industry promotion and specialist training initiatives that regional universities are undertaking through industry-government-academia collaboration, with the heads of the regions exercising leadership.

As the population of 18-year-olds decreases significantly, we will further develop regional universities into places for industry promotion and practical education, taking advantage of the special characteristics of their regions. At the same time, to ensure that the student population is not overly concentrated only in Tokyo, we will establish a concrete system based on the principle of not increasing the student quota of universities in the 23 wards of Tokyo.

In addition, to increase the attractiveness of the towns and shopping areas in the regions, we will provide local economic vitalization grants and other assistance to offer prioritized support for initiatives to solve the issue of vacant shops. We will also consider creating a system that will not allow fixed asset tax exceptions for vacant shops, among other measures, and reach a conclusion by the end of the year.

The Abe administration will keep aiming to further accelerate regional vitalization, and will continue to offer its full support to municipalities driven to vitalize their economies. Based on today's discussion, I would like to ask Minister in charge of Regional Revitalization Yamamoto to lead the efforts in compiling the Basic Policy."