Prime Minister Shinzo Abe held the 22nd meeting of the Council on Economic and Fiscal Policy at the Prime Minister's Office.

During the meeting, discussion took place on social security.

Based on the discussion, the Prime Minister said,

"I have made the tough decision to raise the consumption tax in April of next year, in order to simultaneously achieve economic revitalization and fiscal soundness, as well as to stabilize social security and ensure that the social security system is passed onto future generations.
In this context, a situation in which the measures taken in the FY2014 budget lead to the imposition of a new public burden must be avoided at all costs. From this perspective, as was noted by the private sector members of the Council, maximum efforts must be made to streamline and improve the efficiency of social security expenditures, inclusive of the natural increase of expenses, such as reviewing the system of healthcare reimbursement.
As part of this endeavor, I would like to ask the Council to examine possible measures that would encourage innovations towards the creation of new pharmaceuticals.
In addition, I would like the Council to aim to swiftly achieve a generic penetration rate comparable to that of the West.
Next, with regard to public hospitals, although steps have been taken in accordance with the reform plan, public hospitals remain structurally dependent on large sums of subsidies. In order to ensure that these hospitals manage their businesses with a business mindset and that this benefits the patients, I believe the promotion of further reforms is vital.
Based on today's discussion, I would like to ask the Minister of Finance, the Minister of Health, Labour and Welfare, and the Minister for Internal Affairs and Communications to further deepen their discussion looking ahead to the formulation of the budget by the end of the year."