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[Provisional Translation]

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe held the 20th meeting of the Headquarters on Creating Dynamism in Agriculture, Forestry and Fishery Industries and Local Communities at the Prime Minister's Office.

During the meeting, discussion took place on the outcomes of the consideration of reforms for further strengthening the competitiveness of agriculture, and the draft Revision of the Plan for Creating Dynamism in Agriculture, Forestry and Fishery Industries and Local Communities.

Based on the discussion, the Prime Minister said,

“Today we have determined the Agricultural Competitiveness Strengthening Program.

We will lower production material prices to international standards and, taking into consideration the changes of the times, we will make the distribution and processing structure of agricultural products more efficient. It is important to reorganize related industries, and the Government will also support measures for such reorganization.

In particular, if ZEN-NOH (National Federation of Agricultural Cooperative Associations) reforms its methods of buying production materials and of selling agricultural products, this will provide a major push for the reorganization of related industries. I would like ZEN-NOH to establish thorough annual plans, including numerical targets, and to decisively carry out fundamental reforms, with the intention of transforming itself into an entirely new organization.

With regard to raw milk, we will reform the system that provides financial support only to dairy farmers shipping to designated organizations, and conduct a fundamental review to shift to a system in which dairy farmers can freely choose their sales channels. This type of reform has not taken place for fifty years. 
We will rapidly proceed to the implementation of this program, and advance efforts for enabling agricultural workers to freely develop their businesses as they see fit and for resolving the structural problems that cannot be resolved by the efforts of farmers alone.

At the next ordinary Diet session, we will submit legislation to achieve these reforms. Furthermore, we intend to conduct thorough follow-ups to definitely realize these reforms.

The Abe Cabinet will continue to boldly implement agricultural reforms, and to provide our full support for all those working for the future of agriculture.”