Prime Minister Shinzo Abe held the Meeting for an Exchange of Views with the Business Community on Overcoming Deflation at the Prime Minister's Office.

Discussion took place on the efforts by and issues for the business circle toward the overcoming of deflation.

Based on the discussion, the Prime Minister said in his address,

"The goal for the Abe administration is to make a 'society wherein people's earnest effort is rewarded.' We aim for breaking out of deflation, correcting the yen appreciation, and achieving the economic growth of Japan. In order to do so, we will simultaneously carry forth the 'three prongs,' namely, bold monetary policy, flexible fiscal policy, and a growth strategy that encourages private sector investment. Fortunately, we are finally able to see some positive signs.
In doing so, if we can make this movement result in an increase of income for the people who are working earnestly, it will pave the way towards a full-fledged movement of breaking out of deflation. We can say that the success of the economic policies of the Abe administration depends on whether we can achieve this or not.
Thus, I believe it is necessary for the government, the business community, and labor organizations to cooperate hand-in-hand from a big-picture perspective, beyond the level of ideas in the past, to move towards resolving the issues.
I consider that today's Meeting is a first step towards putting into practice the measures against this pending issue for many years.
We would like to earnestly put our efforts into various regulatory reforms, including the reform of the labor market, and policies the government should take for achieving growth, that you have mentioned today.
At the same time, as for the business community, I would like to ask the companies with improving performance to definitely consider measures such as raising remuneration.
By combining these movements in both the public and private sectors, I expect that we can start a strong movement towards the full-fledged movement of breaking out of deflation."