[Provisional Translation]

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe held the 17th meeting of the Administrative Reform Promotion Council at the Prime Minister’s Office.

During the meeting, discussions took place on “review of important tasks,” “best practices in expenditure reform from each ministry and agency,” and “follow-up on the FY2014 ‘Autumn Review,’ and other matters.”

Based on the discussion in the meeting, the Prime Minister said,

“The Abe Cabinet has newly instituted ‘review of important tasks’ this fiscal year to monitor the effectiveness of policies and programs. Review is currently underway by the working group for ‘promotion of generic pharmaceutical use.’

The ‘interim compilation’ that was reported today contained the approach to ‘improving reliability and security of generic pharmaceuticals’ and ‘strengthening the pharmaceutical industry’s drug discovery and competitive abilities’ in conjunction with promoting the use of generic pharmaceuticals. For the next step, I would like to ask that we work with relevant ministries and agencies to continue to consider necessary policies. 

In addition, I understand that today’s meeting also included an introduction of best practices for improving government operations and procurement. I would like us to leave no doubt about what the positives are, and make further efforts to horizontally roll out these best practices between each ministry and agency.

We will continue to engage in administrative reform with the true interests of the people in mind, while listening closely to the views of those involved in industry, and involving the entire government in the process. I ask for your further assistance in this regard.”