Prime Minister Shinzo Abe attended the 14th meeting of the Regulatory Reform Council at the Prime Minister's Office.

During the meeting, discussion took place on "Priority items for the immediate future," "Hearing from the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries," "Report from the Working Group on Healthcare and Medical Care (pricing rules for innovative pharmaceutical products and medical equipment)," "The regulatory reform hotline," and "The way forward for the Working Group etc."

The Prime Minister said in his opening address,

"A total of 130 regulatory reforms have been compiled by the Council in June. Once again, I would like to express my appreciation to the Council. However, this report is merely a start or first step, not the attainment of a goal.
"Regulatory reform under the Abe administration is never-ending. We must take bold action to clear away and eliminate regulations and obstacles that impede growth.
"Above all, I believe we must focus on the following themes, and compile policies for these areas swiftly: undertaking regulatory reforms to create "strong agriculture" such as promoting the consolidation of farmland by various players in order to improve competitiveness; establishing an environment in which various entities including social welfare corporations, limited companies and non-profit organizations (NPOs) are able to work together to raise the quality of social welfare services such as nursing care and childcare; and expanding the scope of parallel use of medical treatment covered by health insurance and treatment not covered by health insurance so that users find it easier to undergo both types of treatment in parallel, in order to popularize the latest medical technologies in a single move. In addition, we must also realize economic revitalization by tackling one by one the other issues that contribute to such revitalization. The important thing is to bring about actual results, and I would like the matters that have been discussed at the Council to be executed without fail in the administrative and political arenas.
"At the recent election of the House of Councillors, the ruling parties won the majority of seats in the House of Councillors. I truly desire to link this political asset to the improvement of people's lives and economic growth. I would like to connect this political stability to strong growth. I would like to ask the Regulatory Reform Council to engage in robust discussions going forward."