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On March 29, 2018, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe held the 3rd meeting in 2018 of the Council on Economic and Fiscal Policy at the Prime Minister’s Office.
 
At the meeting, following the interim review on Integrated Economic and Fiscal Reforms, discussions were held on medium- to long-term prospects and policy responses for social security and social infrastructure development.
 
Based on the discussions, the Prime Minister said,
 
“We began today’s meeting with the interim review on Integrated Economic and Fiscal Reforms.
 
As part of future integrated reforms, we will maintain our basic policy that ‘there can be no fiscal soundness without economic revitalization,’ and aim to achieve both economic growth and fiscal soundness.
 
Towards the formulation of a new plan, we will consider a framework that links our primary balance surplus target with the formulation of each fiscal year’s budget, while evaluating the progress of ongoing initiatives, in order to achieve our surplus target. In addition, we will accelerate and expand industrialization in public-related services and other initiatives to promote changes such as incentive reforms and process visualization so as to further enhance expenditure reforms.
 
I would like this Council to advance detailed discussions on these matters.
 
Afterwards, we discussed medium- to long-term prospects and policy responses for social security and social infrastructure development, looking ahead to the 2020s.
 
The Council members from the private sector expressed the view that, when creating such a new plan, it is necessary to indicate a medium- to long-term outlook on social security benefits and burdens, which are expected to increase in the future, and that we should expand and roll out initiatives to extend the service life of infrastructure.
 
I ask that the relevant ministers conduct detailed reviews based on these views.
 
We are about to enter a new fiscal year. I intend to speed up the discussions of the Council on Economic and Fiscal Policy, with the aim of compiling a new plan for Integrated Economic and Fiscal Reforms by this summer, and ask for your continued kind cooperation.”