• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

• 
• 

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe visited Fukushima Prefecture to gauge the progress of the reconstruction after the Great East Japan Earthquake.
First, the Prime Minister visited Kawauchi Village in Futaba County, before continuing on to tour a day-care center and hold an exchange of opinions with people affected by the disaster at emergency temporary housing.
Next, the Prime Minister visited a temporary holding area for waste within the village.
Afterwards, the Prime Minister visited Okuma Town in Futaba County, where he observed the proposed construction site for interim storage facilities.
Following this, the Prime Minister visited Hirono Town in Futaba County, where he observed the proposed construction site of a combined junior high and high school.
Lastly, the Prime Minister visited a rice farm in Hirono Town, where he experienced harvesting rice first-hand, and then sampled the rice.
The Prime Minister described the goal of his visit to Fukushima Prefecture as follows, 
“Although the process of reconstructing Fukushima has been slow, I have a sense that at long last forward progress is beginning on this difficult issue.
Following on from Tamura City, the residents of Kawauchi Village will finally be able to return starting in October. However, the lifting of evacuation designations is the first step, not the goal, of reconstruction. I want us to take every measure for the return of residents while earnestly addressing their apprehensions.
In addition, this weekend, we saw the full opening of National Route 6. The opening of the Joban Expressway between Namie and Sendai will be pushed forward to December 6. I want to aim to have the Joban Expressway fully open by the Golden Week holiday period in May next year. I believe this undertaking will be useful for accelerating reconstruction.
Furthermore, regarding interim storage facilities, Governor Sato has made an extremely difficult decision.
We would like to move forward with the creation of interim storage facilities while carefully explaining this matter to land holders and gaining their understanding. In doing so, I promise that we will steadfastly advance legal and fiscal measures.
In addition, I was very encouraged to see that the movement to look towards the future, and start a combined junior high and high school in Futaba County is beginning to gain strong traction.
I want to exert every effort in order to steadily press ahead with reconstruction, while cooperating with local people and standing in solidarity with those affected by the disaster.”
In addition, regarding the first extraordinary session of the Diet following the Cabinet reshuffle, the Prime Minister said,
“Last week, we held the World Assembly for Women in Tokyo. From Japan to the world, I believe that we were able to relay the importance of creating a society in which all women shine.
In the next session of the Diet, we will create laws in order to enable women to shine. Furthermore, in August there were many disasters, and we will create laws for disaster countermeasures. I also want to submit bills to realize the most important mission for this Cabinet: the vitalization of local communities, so that they can advance toward a bright, vital future. I will make enthusiastic efforts to make the issue of regional vitalization the focus of the next Diet session.
Next week, I will attend the General Assembly of the United Nations. As soon as I return from the United Nations, I will call an extraordinary session of the Diet.”