Prime Minister Shinzo Abe held the eighth meeting of the Industrial Competitiveness Council at the Prime Minister's Office.

Discussion took place on the consolidation of matters considered up until now, and the state of consideration in related councils.

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

"Up until now, this council has discussed a range of matters for consideration related to the growth strategy. Each time we have decided on a theme, discussed it, announced results whenever we have settled on a major shift in policy, and moved toward the implementation of that.

On April 19, based on the discussion of this council, I presented a message on my thoughts about major policies in the future in relation to employment promotion, the appointment of women to positions of leadership, job hunting by young people, the acceleration of childcare waiting measures, the establishment of a Japanese version of the National Institute of Health (NIH), regulatory reform for medical technology development, and the international development of the medical industry.

I want to establish the growth strategy before the opening of the G8 Summit in mid-June. At the end of last month, I instructed the relevant ministers to ensure that the results of considerations in the councils that are discussing issues in coordination with this one, such as the Council for Science and Technology Policy and the Regulatory Reform Council, could be reflected in this council's mid-May discussion. Right now, we are utilizing the full force of each Government organization toward the compilation of the growth strategy.

Already, from the perspective of enhancing growth and industrial competitiveness, we have exerted every effort to expand the scope of matters for consideration and held discussions. Moving forward, I want to begin the process of compiling the growth strategy.

What shall we set as the pillars of the growth strategy? How shall we identify an order of priorities? What sort of message shall we send first to the Japanese public, and then to the rest of the world? I want everyone in this council to discuss these points.

I will also think thoroughly about the points I just stated while receiving your opinions and consulting with Minister Amari, who has the job of compiling discussion points. I want to present a message on this, and I look forward to everyone's cooperation toward the compilation."