Prime Minister Shinzo Abe attended the New Year Party by the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association held in Tokyo.

The Prime Minister said in his opening address,

"We marked the start of the new year as the ruling parties taking over the reins of government.
At the same time, we have started this new year with grave responsibilities.

The mission imposed on us is to restore a strong economy.
Our basic policies are to realize economic growth, create wealth based on such growth, and distribute the wealth to everyone. I am picturing making Japan into this kind of country.
Particularly, manufacturing is extremely important.
I would like to restore Japan as a country of manufacturing.
I believe that the automobile industry precisely fits the central role for this.
The industry is in difficulty in terms of winning in competition because of the super-strong yen, despite working earnestly and exercising wisdom, and is consequently being forced to move factories abroad, or to close down factories. I think that something is wrong with this.
It is my belief that we should make a society wherein people's earnest effort is rewarded and their exercised wisdom is highly evaluated. I believe that Japan will never lose once it can stand at the same starting line as others.
Under such situation, we would like to revive Japan and restore the Japanese economy with the 'three prongs,' namely, bold monetary policy, flexible public finance policy, and a growth strategy that encourages private sector investment.
This is the year of the snake in the Chinese calendar. The snake is also the symbol for prosperous business. While I was also in the post of Prime Minister six years ago, I have cast off my old skin in these six years, and now I am willing to work flexibly, decisively, boldly and at the same time carefully, as a reborn Prime Minister.
We would like to aim for making Japan a country where the economy is revived, in which the pride of the Japanese people is restored, and where people can live their lives in an affluent society."