[Provisional Translation]

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

At the meeting, the guidelines for measures on the utilization of public procurement and subsidies for the promotion of active participation by women were determined, and discussion took place on promotion of the agenda on women during the Ise-Shima Summit.

Based on the discussion, the Prime Minister said,

“Today we determined the guidelines to more proactively evaluate companies that promote a work-life balance in the public procurement process. Once these guidelines are fully implemented, they will apply to operations amounting to five trillion yen. This is a new incentive for companies to advance workstyle reforms.

We will regularly publish the state of progress of the measures of each ministry and agency based on these guidelines. Each Cabinet member will promptly publish the schedule for their measures, and in principle implement them within the coming fiscal year.

I hope that even in fields where measures have been delayed up until now, the public procurement process will change the mindset of companies, and help make great advances in achieving work-life balance throughout Japanese society as a whole.

The question of how to facilitate more active participation by women is an issue of major international concern.
I have received reports regarding how the G7 Ise-Shima Summit and the eight ministerial meetings will tackle this issue. In all fields, including science and technology, and agriculture, we will address the issue of women’s active participation and initiate discussions, in an effort to raise awareness throughout society.
I would like each Cabinet member to advance exchanges of views with each G7 country, and to produce results.
Then, in the Summit also, we will deepen discussions on active participation by women, and link them to concrete actions.”