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[Provisional Translation]

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe held the ninth meeting of the Council on Overcoming Population Decline and Vitalizing Local Economy in Japan at the Prime Minister's Office.

During the meeting, discussions were held on the “Basic Policy for Overcoming Population Decline and Vitalizing Local Economy 2016.”

Based on the discussion, the Prime Minister said,

“Today we discussed the draft ‘Basic Policy for Overcoming Population Decline and Vitalizing Local Economy 2016.’

We will create jobs in the regions through ‘local Abenomics.’

In each region, we will develop Japanese Destination Management / Marketing Organization s (DMOs) to act as control towers for regional tourism, as well as regional trading companies to handle regional specialty goods and the cultivation of new business channels.

We will construct a framework to support the use of the Internet of Things (IoT) by regional small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), and a ‘Japanese innovation ecosystem’ to support the commercialization of the technology owned by SMEs.

We will generate a new flow of people to the regions.

We will promote the use of tax systems to strengthen regional centers by corporations and steadily advance the shift of government-related organizations to the regions as well. 

Through industry-government-academia collaborations, we will create opportunities for students studying in Tokyo to undertake internships at companies located in regions that young people most commonly leave.

I would like Minister Ishiba to lead efforts to compile the Basic Policies based on today’s discussion. We will continue to exert every effort for regional vitalization.”