[Provisional Translation]

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe held the 17th meeting in 2016 of the Council on Economic and Fiscal Policy at the Prime Minister's Office.

At the meeting, there was discussion related to “the improvement of economic statistics, focused on GDP statistics,” and “comprehensive economic and fiscal reform: social security reform.”

Based on the discussion, the Prime Minister said,

“First, today we had a discussion on the improvement of economic statistics, focused on GDP statistics. In light of points made about issues such as the accuracy of statistics and the enhancement of statistics in new fields, it is vital that we lay a firm foundation for trust in statistics through the construction of more precise and usable statistics systems.

I want Minister Ishihara in the Cabinet Office to collaborate with Governor Kuroda of the Bank of Japan and relevant ministers to aim to compile, during this year, basic policies within this Council on behalf of the Government on the improvement of various statistics, as well as a work plan for the implementation of those improvements.

Second, we turned to a discussion of the various arguments related to comprehensive economic and fiscal reform and had a discussion on the reform of social security.

Private sector members pointed out that we should work for reforms in major cities and other areas where per capita medical costs are well above other places, strengthen incentives for insurers and businesses to ensure disbursements are appropriate themselves, and advance initiatives in collaboration with the Council for Medical and Nursing Care Information in the Cabinet Secretariat, among other suggestions.

I would like Minister Shiozaki to accelerate considerations toward the realization of reforms based on today’s discussion, and I would like to have further deliberations on these matters within this Council.”