[Provisional Translation]

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe held the third meeting of the Headquarters for Creating a Society in which All Women Shine, at the Prime Minister's Office.

At the meeting, discussion took place on the initiatives of the Abe Cabinet to date for the promotion of active participation by women, the draft basic policies for the promotion of active participation by women in workplaces and future initiatives, and promotion of the agenda on women during the Ise-Shima Summit.

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

“We have confirmed the progress of policies to accelerate the promotion of active participation by women, one of the top priorities we have engaged in since the inauguration of the Second Abe Cabinet.

We have enacted the bill on promoting active participation by women, which will serve as an engine for the promotion of active participation by women in the workplace. We will establish basic polices setting out the viewpoints expected of business operators, as well as administrative measures, and the Cabinet will make a decision on those policies. 

I would like each Cabinet member to promote the formulation of Action Plans with companies in each field under your jurisdiction, so that initiatives based on these business-led Action Pans can be implemented as scheduled from April of next year. At the same time, I would also like you to actively support initiatives that advance reforms in the way people work throughout the country.

The ‘Yu-Katsu’ initiative we implemented this summer, which encouraged government employees to arrive early and finish work at a time scheduled to be earlier than normal each evening, was part of our efforts to ‘practice what we preach’ as we engage in working style reforms. I request that each Cabinet member actively undertake initiatives in your respective ministries and agencies, such as measures to hire more female public employees and further their careers, as well as efforts to reform work styles, so that we can promote active participation by female public employees and achieve work-life balance for all employees, including male public employees.

At the end of last month, we hosted the second World Assembly for Women in Tokyo (WAW! Tokyo 2015). I gave a speech there in which I stated that if both men and women work together, it would be possible to reconcile economic growth and rising birth rates, as they have done in the countries of Northern Europe.

During the G7 Ise-Shima Summit, we will strongly advance the agenda on women. To that end, and in line with the proposal we heard a moment ago from Minister Arimura, I would like the relevant ministers to consider holding discussions that contribute to the promotion of active participation by women during G7 related ministerial meetings next year. I hope we can link the results of such discussions in some manner to the summit-level meetings.”