Prime Minister Shinzo Abe attended a party to honor the appointment of the new Chairman of the Japan Productivity Center at a hotel in Tokyo.
The Prime Minister said in his address,
“It gives me great pleasure to see this party being held with such grandeur.
A year and a half has passed since the Abe administration was inaugurated and since then we have focused our efforts on revitalizing the economy. As part of this process of revitalizing the economy we must of course also improve productivity. With the population declining, enhancing productivity will help Japan’s economy grow. This is a rather difficult challenge, but we have nevertheless worked to address this. 
In particular, we have devoted efforts to fostering innovation. In addition, even in sectors with low productivity, we have broken down vested interests, for which reform has been slow.
For example, we have initiated reforms to the system of agricultural cooperatives in order to improve productivity in agriculture. In principle, we will submit a bill for such reform in the next session of the Diet, and I would like to make the reforms visible to all, so that everyone understands just how much progress we are making.
Today, we made a decision on the direction of the corporate tax reform. We have decided to aim to lower the effective corporate tax rate to 20-29% over the next few years. We also decided to begin such efforts from the next fiscal year. We will of course secure the necessary tax base, but we have already decided to clearly stipulate this in the “Basic Policies” without waiting for year’s end. We will further improve Japan’s competiveness. We will also raise productivity. Many of Japan’s business leaders are gathered with us here today, and I would like to ask that you actively make capital investments, for without such investment we cannot raise productivity. Furthermore, I would like you to not only invest in machinery and equipment, but also in human resources. This will raise Japan’s competitiveness and its latent competitiveness, and help Japan continue to grow more and more.    
I would like the public and private sectors to work as one to increase productivity and generate growth to make Japan globally competitive. This will generate employment opportunities and improve peoples’ everyday lives. This is what I would like to dedicate all our efforts toward. To this end, I ask that the Japan Productivity Center carry out active discussions and come up with new ideas. With that, I would like to conclude my address. Once again congratulations.”