Prime Minister Shinzo Abe attended the first meeting of the Council for Gender Equality in 2014 (43rd in total) at the Prime Minister's Office.
During the meeting, discussion was held on the report from the specialist committee and future initiatives requested of the Government.
Based on the discussion, the Prime Minister said in his address,
“I would like to thank everyone greatly for your active discussion today.
The facilitation of women's active role is a core principle of the Abe Cabinet’s growth strategy. In April 2013 I made a request that all publicly listed companies in Japan have at least one female member on their board of directors. As a result, I understand that companies are steadily making progress toward appointing female members to their executive team.
We need to ensure such efforts are not transient in nature, and instead take hold in all of Japanese society. To that end, it would be effective for companies to formulate plans to appoint and foster more female managers. In particular, I ask that listed companies create such plans and make them public. I will continue to seek opportunities to make such requests and I would like to ask for the cooperation of the ministers and experts in attendance today. 
Furthermore, small- and medium-sized enterprises, too, will need to mobilize women in order to secure the talent they need. The Government will continue to broaden support measures for promoting the hiring of women.
I ask for further cooperation from the members of this Council to help Japan realize a society where women can play a highly active role.”