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On March 27, 2019, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe held a press conference at the Diet.
 
Regarding the FY2019 budget, the Prime Minister said,
 
“I have consistently advocated that the early passage of the budget is itself the most important stimulus to the economy. Fortunately, we have managed to pass the budget before the end of the fiscal year. We would like to exert every effort to swiftly execute this budget. As the global economy increases its uncertainty, I intend to take all possible measures to manage our economy by swift execution of the budget followed by the countermeasures worth 2 trillion yen pursuant to the consumption tax increase.
 
In addition, this budget aims to strengthen administrative capacity of the local government and further enhance our efforts to promote regional revitalization such as support for agriculture, forestry, and fisheries industries. With the passing of this budget, we will realize early childhood education and childcare free of charge from October. At the same time, we are to proceed with measures including the increase of the amount of pension and the reduction of long-term care insurance premiums for the elderly. Through these efforts, we intend to transform our social security system to one which is oriented to all generations. To that end, I believe this budget will be the first major step to move forward.
 
In the second half of the Diet session, I would like to ask the Diet to deliberate on relevant bills to materialize early childhood education and higher education free of charge and those to prevent child abuse, and I intend to exert efforts to enact them.”