Prime Minister Shinzo Abe held the ninth meeting of the Reconstruction Promotion Council at the Prime Minister's Office.

During the meeting, briefings were conducted on "the reconstruction efforts and achievements of the past year" and "FY2014 measures."

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

"The Abe Cabinet identifies the acceleration of reconstruction as one of its top priorities.
I have been visiting the areas affected by the Great East Japan Earthquake every month, adopting a hands-on approach. Through my visits, I have seen firsthand that reconstruction has made steady strides, observing the smiles on the faces of families who have moved into public housing for disaster-stricken households as well as the vast stretches of green fields in areas where farming has resumed.
From today's briefings, I was able to get an overall sense of how the reconstruction has progressed during this past year.
The progress is the outcome of Cabinet-wide efforts for reconstruction. I would like to express my appreciation to the ministers for their active engagement.
At the same time, although it will soon be three years since the earthquake, more than 270,000 people are still spending this winter at their evacuation locations.
In this sense, this will be a critical year in terms of the reconstruction from the earthquake and tsunami in that full-fledged construction work will begin for housing rehabilitation and other projects. This will also be a critical year in terms of the reconstruction and revitalization of Fukushima, in that various programs will begin on a full-fledged basis for the early return of residents and for the development of living bases for long-term evacuees.
As I have always said, there will be no revitalization of Japan without the reconstruction of the disaster area.
To ensure that the affected people are able to resume their regular lives as quickly as possible, the Government will make efforts to further accelerate reconstruction with Cabinet members being mindful that they are all effectively ministers for reconstruction and by fully mobilizing policies under a firm scheme. Thank you for your cooperation."