Liaison Meeting of the Government and Ruling Parties

January 21, 2025
[Provisional translation]

On January 21, 2025, Prime Minister Ishiba attended a Liaison Meeting of the Government and Ruling Parties at the Prime Minister’s Office.

In his opening remarks Prime Minister Ishiba said:

“Thank you very much for taking the trouble of coming here. It has been two months since we last held this meeting, as the last one came before the New Year’s holidays. I look forward to working with you again this year. At the same time, I am grateful that your dedicated efforts resulted in the enactment of political reform bills in the extraordinary Diet session.

In accordance with the revised Political Funds (Control) Act, we will continuously work to deepen discussions on various topics, including the establishment of a committee for auditing political funds that is tasked mainly with the oversight of political fundraising reports prepared by political organizations related to Diet members, while making such efforts as the abolition of policy activity expenses and the creation of a database of political fundraising reports.

In December, we approved a draft budget for FY2025 in a Cabinet meeting. It is my recognition that this is a budget, above all, to ensure the shift from a cost-cutting economy to an economy based on the creation of high amounts of added value. I would like to request your support for the passage of this budget.

With regard to our important policies, we compiled basic policies to improve the treatment of Self-Defense Forces personnel and regional revitalization last December, again with your cooperation. We plan to draw up a basic concept on regional revitalization 2.0, which we will focus on for the next decade, by this coming summer. I visited the (Fukushima) Daiichi Nuclear Power Station, Futaba Town, and Okuma Town to check the progress of reconstruction with my own eyes. On the New Year’s Day, I attended the memorial ceremony for the victims in the Noto Peninsula [earthquake and heavy rains]. The other day, I went on a business trip to Osaka to observe the situation at the Expo venue. While we are speeding up discussions on a Ministry of Disaster Management, we hope to somehow make Japan the best prepared country in the world for disasters, as Japan is one of the most disaster-prone nations on earth. I am sure MYAKU-MYAKU greeted you when you arrived at the Prime Minister’s Office – and it will begin to speak someday – as for the Osaka Expo, I was in the second year of junior high school when the Expo was last held in the city. I vividly remember I visited there three times on a five-hour diesel train trip from Tottori. As long as 55 years have already passed since then, and some of you may not have been born at that time. Still, we request you to work on how to make this Kansai Expo a success through joint efforts by the Government and the ruling parties. On its part, the Government will do everything in its power, while at the same time seeking support from the members of the ruling parties. As of now, I cannot say that advance tickets sell fairly well, and whereas the Expo is well-known especially in the Kansai region, some people in the Kanto region do not know about it at all in the first place. Besides, when you ask whether the tickets are readily available at convenience stores, it is not the case. In spite of everything, we hope that the Kansai Expo will contribute to regional revitalization through its combination with local areas, say, ‘Let’s go to Kesennuma after visiting the Expo’ or ‘Let’s go to Okayama after visiting the Expo.’ I would appreciate your support and cooperation.

I believe that you all have listened to the inaugural address by President Trump. Unlike many of the past presidential inauguration speeches that spoke of lofty ideals, today’s speech was just like a campaign speech in some ways, and it is therefore safe to say the address was concrete in details. We would appreciate your wisdom and support in respect of how we will respond. Speaking of a meeting with President Trump, last-minute efforts are under way to make it happen at the most appropriate time and in the most appropriate manner. The Diet will be in session then, so we intend to bring it into reality while seeking the understanding of the Diet.

The Prime Minister of Laos is scheduled to visit Japan today. Meanwhile, I recently visited Malaysia and Indonesia for the first time in around 34 years. In addition, the secretary-generals of the Liberal Democratic Party and Komeito went all the way to China the other day. Going forward, we intend to further strengthen various relations of trust with Asian countries, including in the field of security, and develop our relationship with the United States. As we are facing energy security and other important issues, your support in this regard would be appreciated.

Furthermore, I had the opportunity to meet with members of Nihon Hidankyo (Japan Confederation of A- and H-Bomb Sufferers Organizations), with Chief Representative Saito [of Komeito] in attendance. We hope that the ruling parties will have deep discussions on the issue and strive to make contributions toward the realization of world peace. The Government will also do the utmost concerning the matter. Thank you very much for sparing your time and allowing me to talk about various topics.

In any case, an ordinary Diet session starts on the 24th. As we are minority ruling parties, we cannot pass the budget or bills without the support of opposition parties. This is where things are totally different from what they used to be. We will end up going nowhere unless we successfully foster the public opinion that what the Government and ruling parties propose is reasonable. The Government, on its part, will act in good faith and offer thoroughgoing explanations. The policy speech is scheduled on the 24th, accompanied by interpellations by each party head at plenary sessions of both the Houses of Representatives and Councillors, which will be then followed by Budget Committee sessions. We would like to consider all of them together as a whole and aim to pass the budget swiftly. At the same time, your feedback on what needs improvement would be appreciated. That is all.”

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