Meeting with Keidanren (Japan Business Federation)

On January 19, 2026, Prime Minister Takaichi held a meeting with Keidanren (Japan Business Federation) at the Prime Minister’s Office.

The Prime Minister said in her closing remarks:

“I would like to express my sincere appreciation to the members of the business community for sharing their candid opinions today.

Chairman Tsutsui just offered encouraging comments on the benefits of the current rise in stock prices. Guided by the concept of responsible and proactive public finances, the Takaichi administration is advancing bold and strategic investments to strengthen Japan’s supply structure and pursuing policies to create a virtuous cycle of increasing employment and income, improved consumer sentiment, and rising corporate profits, thereby increasing tax revenue without raising tax rates.

Against this backdrop, we today had the opportunity to listen to your opinions and thoughts on domestic investments, wage increases, corporate governance reforms, and the Global South. It was very encouraging to hear how strongly the business community is determined to actively work to accelerate initiatives to achieve the public-private investment goal of 200 trillion yen by FY2040, conduct efforts to make wage increases aimed at real wage growth take root more firmly, implement growth-oriented corporate governance reforms, and strengthen collaboration with the Global South.

After all, bringing about a strong economy requires proactive engagement of the business community, as key players.

To encourage corporate behavior that appropriately allocates management resources, such as cash and deposits, to capital investment, research investment, and human resource investment, the Government has begun discussions toward revising the Corporate Governance Code. We will push ahead with reforms to establish growth-oriented corporate governance.

Moreover, as the United States, European countries, and China further enhance policies to promote domestic investments, giving rise to intense competition in industrial policy, the importance of collaborative initiatives between the public and private sectors only continues to grow.

Against this backdrop, the Government has taken measures to the fullest extent possible to enhance investment predictability through the latest supplementary budget and tax reforms, with a view to accelerating domestic investments.

We will provide strong support to help businesses identify winning strategies in domestic and international markets and make bold investments in Japan.

Wage increases have now exceeded 5 percent, reaching their highest level in over 30 years. It is important to firmly entrench this trend and translate it into wage growth that outpaces inflation.

We have stated that the Takaichi Cabinet will create an environment that enables sustained wage growth rather than leaving wage increases entirely up to business operators. Thank you for your agreement on this point earlier. The Government will strongly support wage increases that outpace inflation through measures such as providing assistance for productivity enhancement and promoting appropriate trade practices.

Furthermore, strengthening collaboration with the Global South is critically important for realizing Japan’s vision of a ‘Free and Open Indo-Pacific’ (FOIP).

The Government will strategically advance leader-level diplomacy, support overseas expansion that contributes to solving social issues in partner countries, expand the membership of the CPTPP (Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership), strengthen economic ties with Mercosur (Common Market of the South), and enhance collaboration with the Global South.

In addition, amid heightened geopolitical risks, we will speed up the formation of alternative supply sources as an upstream measure so that we can build resilient supply chains. At the same time, we will flexibly advance mid-to-downstream measures, including diversifying procurement sources. We will also make requests to China in cooperation with like-minded countries.

We also ask all of you in the business community to continue your efforts to make supply chains resilient from the perspective of economic security, including the diversification of suppliers, resource saving, and recycling, to avoid excessive dependence on specific countries for critical items.

I look forward to working together in steadily implementing these policies through public-private collaboration and building a strong economy. Thank you very much.”